Futures
by BenRG
Summary: A married Dick Grayson returns to Titans Tower for the wedding of one of his team-mates only to find a surprise waiting that will challenge his relationship with his wife like nothing before! Rob/? BB/Terra Cy/Bee Rae/OC
1. The Prodigal Son and Daughter Return

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

**

* * *

**

Disclaimer

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Chapter 1 – The Prodigal Son (and Daughter) Return**

Richard Grayson, the originator of the Robin identity and currently Nightwing, the mysterious protector of the city of Blüdhaven, had faced many terrible and astonishing dangers in his life. He had gone toe-to-toe with demons, encountered psychopaths for whom mass murder was an elaborate joke. He had encountered (and dated!) alien princesses, demi-demon sorceresses and immortal amazons. He had faced foes of all sorts and had made a whole city that bit safer by his own hard work.

So… as he stood there, resplendent in his costume, on this island off the coast of Jump City, why was his stomach now churning so hard that he was afraid that he was going to puke?

It was probably because, for the first time in a very long time, he was about to walk into Titans Tower.

Now, it wasn't as if Dick was _afraid_ of the Titans. Far from it. The (formerly Teen) Titans were amongst his closest and most trusted friends in the world. Hell, Roy was the closest thing he had to a brother! However… well, as well as triumphs, there had been tragedies during those six youthful years in Jump City. Worse, there had been embarrassments that were bad for the male ego. Okay, so Babs was there for most of them but still, it wasn't the sort of thing of which you wanted to be reminded…

"So, Short-pants, are we gonna stand here all night or are you going to press the doorbell?"

Dick looked over at Barbara Grayson – Phoenix – his wife, partner in crime-fighting, best friend and better half, currently resplendent in her fighting mantle, similar to his own Nightwing costume except it had a red and gold firebird instead of his blue crow sigil. He noted her mocking smile that she always wore when she caught him in the middle of a self-image crisis. It was hard trying to be the stoic, fearless costumed adventurer who knew all and overcame every obstacle when your wife wasn't fooled by that self-deception for a moment. It normally eased matters between them that neither had any ability to keep secrets from the other but… damn it, sometimes it was _awkward_.

"I guess I'm just a little nervous seeing the guys after all this time, Babs!"

Barbara shot her husband an odd look. "Dick, half of them were at the spring cook-off in Metropolis! I don't think you could say any of them have become strangers!"

Dick laughed. "It's more because we're _here_ Babs. Gotham, the Haven, even Metropolis to a certain extent are either home or neutral turf. Running into them here again, after all these years?" Dick sighed. "It's going to bring back a lot of memories, not all of them good."

Barbara smiled as she thought back to her own nearly four years as a Titan.

At first, Dick had thought his old girlfriend had run away from Gotham to be with him. Much to his crushing disappointment, it turned out that Barbara Gordon was studying electronics and computer sciences at Jump City University. However, it still meant that Robin and Batgirl were able to fly from rooftop to rooftop side-by-side again. It also meant that the group's internal dynamic was sent tottering, something of which Barbara was pleasantly unaware until Kori had confronted her and demanded that she reveal her intentions regarding Dick. Oddly enough, although she had dreams of linking up with Dick again, it was only after that rooftop encounter with a mad-as-murder alien girl that she had realised that he was what she needed, what was missing in her life.

Barbara laughed to herself. Yes, there were good times and bad. Oddly enough, the bad times all coincided with the name Slade Wilson. She couldn't help but shiver as she remembered the long nights she, Kori and Rae had spent holding Tara, who was weeping and screaming in the grip of a terrifying nightmare from which she could not wake. On the very worst nights (thank God they were rare), the flashbacks had become so intense that the girl had lost all sense of reality and had become convinced that the metahuman assassin was torturing and brainwashing her again. She forced her memories to lighter topics: Vic and Karen circling uncertainly around each other, both afraid to make the first move; Kori's innocent sense of wonder at the most mundane Earthly experience; The first time Raven felt secure enough in herself to laugh at one of Gar's jokes; That Thanksgiving at the Tower with Jenny's impassioned advocacy of a pardon for the turkey whilst Toni hummed a patriotic tune in the background.

She leant over and kissed her husband on the cheek, just below the edge of Nightwing's mask. "You'll do fine, hot stuff," she said. "Just remember: These are friends!"

Dick rolled his eyes. "That's one of the things I'm worried about," he said. "These friends know _all about us_." Dick sighed. _Time to suck it up, hero_, he told himself and pressed the intercom button.

Within a minute, the door opened and a gold-red-and-purple blur shot through opening and flung her arms around Dick and Barbara's necks in a ecstatic airborne hug of welcome: "_Oh X'hal! Friend Nightwing! Friend Phoenix! It is so gloriously joyous to see you again!_"

Automatically, Dick returned the hug as Babs did from the other side. "Hey, Starfire… or should I say 'General Koriand'r'?" he teased.

The Tamaranian woman laughed and backed out of the hug, swatting Dick on the shoulder gently. "Silly Wing! I am hardly in my warrior's uniform am I? 'General Koriand'r' is on leave and she is most pleased to simply be Kori for the next four weeks!" The tawny-skinned woman beamed in happiness. "It has been too long! So much has happened and this is a most blessed time!"

Kori was right about that. After six years, the Titans had all started going their own way. Wally had taken over from his Uncle Barry as The Flash and Dick had gone to Blüdhaven to become that benighted city's protector. Victor and Karen had retired altogether, citing a desire to determine what was a 'normal life'. Kori went further than most. With her parents' deaths at the hands of a traitor, she and sister (and her former arch-foe) Kommand'r, Blackfire, returned back to Tamaran to fight the usurper. After defeating the traitor and his Thangaran-backed army and seeing Kommand'r safely enthroned, Kori found herself made general of her sister's armies with innumerable responsibilities. The last time she had got away to visit Earth had been for Dick and Babs' wedding over two years ago! Which was a coincidence, because a not-dissimilar event is what had brought the complete group together for the first time since then.

"Come! Come in, my friends!" Kori said, grabbing Dick and Babs by the hands and dragging them into the Tower. "You are almost the last to arrive! There are so many people to see…!" Dick and Babs stopped and looked up. "Friends…? What is the reason…? Oh, yes!" Kori looked up and realised that the two newcomers were looking at the statue of the one Teen Titan who never made it to adulthood.

All three stood silently, Kori adopting the respectful pose of her culture by crossing her hands across her heart, and bowing her head slightly. They all had shadows in their past but the one that they all had in common was Joe. Joseph Wilson. Jericho. Barbara squeezed her husband's hand reassuringly and leant her head on his shoulder. "He knew what he was doing," she murmured. "It was something that he wanted to do."

"I still wonder if I could have changed things somehow."

"That is the burden of the commander," Kori responded wisely, squeezing her former boyfriend's shoulder.

* * *

Dick walked into the Common Room. Many things had changed but the room hadn't really altered all that much. Was that really the same beaten-up leather sofa in front of the TV set? Admittedly, that was a brand new GameStation-3X rather than the original GameStation under the new wide-screen plasma TV. The view of Jump City from the huge picture window here at the crux of the Tower's 'T' was still as astonishing as ever. The décor had stayed the same, though. Overall, the similarities outweighed the differences.

Dick looked around himself and half expected to see Vic and Gar playing a video game with fierce concentration whilst Star leant over their shoulders, desperately trying to understand this strange human activity and Raven sat on a stool in the kitchen nook, sipping on her tea.

Then Dick blinked and realised that this _was_ what was happening. Of course, this was 30-year-old journalist and environmental activist Garfield Logan, not 15-year-old Beast Boy, and 34-year-old Professor Victor Stone, lecturer in applied bionic technology at Jump City U, rather than 19-year-old Cyborg. Thirty-one-year-old Koriand'r of Tamaran, utterly at ease with human society and knowing her friends far too well, slinked over and offered a teasing comment about the two men's driving skills. Meanwhile, 32-year-old doctor of history Rachel Roth sat on a stool, sipping tea and reviewing some academic papers, her lips twitching with humour as she watched Kori's perfectly-judged tease so totally throw off both Vic and Gar's concentration at a critical moment that they simultaneously crashed their game cars.

"Hey there, costumed adventurers!" Vic stood up and heartily shook Dick and Babs' hands in turn. "Us poor provincial types are honoured by your presence, oh Justice League Auxiliary Members!"

Barbara waved her hand idly. "Technically, Sarah, the chief technician in the Javelin hanger, is an 'auxiliary member' too, Vic. Frankly, she's more central to the League than us!"

Dick slapped his old friend on the shoulder. "So, how are you doin' big guy? How's Karen?" Victor had married Karen Beecher, Bumblebee, shortly after they both retired from active duty with the Titans.

"She's out chasing down some stuff for the Bridal Shower," Vic explained. "Enjoying every minute of having stuff to organise, though." He looked at Barbara again. "How's the new back working?"

Barbara twisted her upper body. "Hardly notice it's there," she reported. Barbara had been paralysed from the waist down after being shot in the gut by The Joker. Shortly after she married Dick, Vic had come up with a way to replace her destroyed spinal column without having to use an obvious external cable trunk and power supply, a former necessity as his own enormous nearly-robotic body proved. So successful was the implant that Barbara was able to set down the mantle of Oracle and become Phoenix, standing beside her husband in protecting their city. (This also allowed a brilliant young student of Barbara's to take over as Oracle, but that was another story.)

"Richard. Barbara. Welcome." Rae stood and walked over to her two old friends. "Thank you for coming."

"Hey, would we miss this for the world?" Babs asked before hugging the quiet sorceress. Raven smiled and hugged her back. Once, a very long time ago, Raven would have frozen or fought to get free from physical contact like that but she had come a long way since then. Raven had conquered her past, as much as anyone could conquer the facts of their ancestry, and had become comfortable in her skin in a way Dick could never have imagined when the Titans were originally formed. Raven was now… _happy_. She smiled at her friends, initiated physical contact and was even so bold as to kiss Dick on the cheek.

The final proof? This gathering was to celebrate her upcoming _marriage_.

* * *

Raven, of all of them, had the hardest time on her path to adulthood and emotional stability. It did not help that, to control her demon half, she had disciplined herself to almost completely repress all of her emotions. She was so afraid of her dark half that she would not dare to allow anyone close to her in the fear that it may harm them.

Even after Trigon's fall, Rae maintained a nearly-physical distance from her team-mates. Oddly enough, it was another's misfortune that marked the renaissance of Rae's personality. It was when Terra was misled and then brainwashed and enslaved by Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator.

Even though Tara ultimately able to break free from Slade's conditioning, such things as she went through left scars both physical, mental and emotional. Even after her memories returned, the girl was uncertain around her team-mates and visibly flinched at physical contact, hinting at abuses that, as far as Dick knew, she had never told anyone about. Dick, who had his own failures to handle, was able to help a little. However, the person who helped Tara the most, maybe even averted her suicide, was Rae.

Rae could empathise with Tara in a way that the other Titans couldn't. She, after all, knew what it was to be a slave to evil. To have one's mind and soul rewritten on a fundamental level so that friends became enemies and love became hate. She knew what it meant to willingly inflict the most terrible atrocities on the innocent and gladly strive to destroy those who were once your friends. She, too could look at her friends and remember with perfect clarity a time when her fondest dream was their humiliation and painful death.

In truth, Rae hadn't got over it either. So, instead, she and Tara got over it together. They explored their memories and meditated on the truths of their relationships. They shared things that, to Dick's knowledge, they never shared with anyone else, even their boyfriends. Slowly, they healed each other by realising the futility of dwelling on a past so utterly out of their control and by acknowledging where their arrogance and fears had left them vulnerable to the lure of evil when it came.

Dick would always remember the evening when Tara walked into the Common Room, saw Gar and _smiled_. _Really _smiled. Smiled with genuine happiness rather than the forced half-smile that faded quickly, which had been the most she had been able to manage recently. Then her face became serious and she walked over to Gar until they were practically touching.

"So, was it true, what you said to me that day in Tokyo?" she asked seriously. "Did you want me dead?"

Gar looked shocked and had to take a few breaths before answering. "I'm sorry I said that…" he murmured.

"But was it _true_?"

Gar clearly had to think about what to say. "Seein' you like that, Tara? A _monster_ controlled by Slade…? Yeah, it _was_ true. I'd rather see you dead than having to live a nightmare like that." Tara nodded seriously, as emotionless as Rae on a bad day, giving no sign if she approved or disapproved of Gar's reply, only that she understood. "But…" Gar looked up again. "But I'd rather see you like this: Alive and free."

Tara's smile came out again. "I'm glad," she said. "Rae was right. You _do_ care for me, don't you Gar?" Beast Boy had spluttered a little and Tara had actually _giggled_. "That's good because I care for you too!" Then she initiated the kiss, the first of what would be many. Dick had looked around at that point and had seen Raven… _smiling_. The first genuine smile he had ever seen grace her lips.

After that, Rae never seemed to turn back. Although she had long carried a torch for Dick, she was more than able to handle his gentlemanly but firm lack of interest in her. Instead she began to go out on the town with Star, Jinx, Argent and Terra. She even _dated_. It all came to a head with the newest Titan – Jericho.

Joe had been an incredible time in Rae's life. Everyone was more than a little suspicious of Slade Wilson's youngest son. Everyone except Raven. Maybe it was because she knew a demon when she saw one and didn't see one in him. Maybe it was his inability to speak that fitted in with her own quiet demeanour. Maybe it was the fact that, as telepaths, they could communicate on a level utterly unimaginable to most people. Or, maybe it was because she genuinely liked the gentle, artistic boy and he genuinely liked her; the two of them simply connected and seemed made for each other. It was a horrible blow for her when Joe died in that final, horrible battle with Slade. Slade had run Joe through with a sword but, with his final movement, Joe had thrown both himself and his father off of the side of a cliff into a blazing pit of lava, a death from which not even Slade's uncanny regenerative ability could save him.

For a long while, Dick thought that Raven would retreat back into herself. Certainly, it was clear that she had felt the blow deeply and was understandably wary of exposing herself to this pain ever again. However, she recovered soon enough and even found the strength to pursue further relationships. Including, much to the other Titans' mirth, Roy Harper, Arsenal (or Speedy as he still was then).

Now, here they found themselves, just two weeks away from Rae getting married; Not even to a fellow costumed hero either! Rae had retired from all that long ago, studying history and getting a job as an assistant curator at the city's Archaeological Museum. Who should she meet but a field archaeologist named Tony who happened to share her love for rare books, her interest in the occult and her love of classical music? From what Gar had told Dick in his regular emails, it was pretty much a match made in heaven. Not even learning that his girlfriend was a former costumed hero, possessed of immense metahuman powers and was the mentor to a new generation of the heroes could get between them.

* * *

"So… are you ready?" Babs asked Rae.

The pale-skinned woman considered this carefully before shaking her head. "Frankly, no. I never thought that I could experience a fear this strong in a non-life-threatening scenario."

Barbara laughed. "Good, because you can't go into something like this and not be nervous. I know that I was a wreck! Dinah and Helena eventually had to slip a knock-out drop into my tea to make me sleep!"

"If it makes any difference, Tony probably feels just as nervous," Dick offered.

"Which is why I had Vic stick a tracer on him," Gar announced with a commendably straight face. "Never fear, my dear Raven, the Titans are on the job! If he runs, we'll find him before he gets too far."

Raven raised an eyebrow and, based on the way she was glaring at Gar, Dick wondered whether she was about to deliver a heated defence of her fiancé. Suddenly another voice interrupted. "At least there is no chance of him morphing into an insect and trying to hide on the wedding day, is there, darling?"

Tara Logan, Terra, walked into the room shooting her husband a cool and mocking smile, her second child, little baby Martin, in her arms. As she strode over, her hip-length blonde hair flowed from side to side in the way that always had a hypnotic effect on her husband.

"Honey! You're back early!" Gar, to his credit didn't miss a beat. He took Martin from his wife's arms and kissed her gently on her cheek, an act that made her smile warm up considerably. "Everything is okay, isn't it?"

"Of course," Tara said. "It isn't as if Karen would allow anything else! Dick, Babs! Hey! Great to see you two slow-pokes have finally arrived!" With her arms freed, Tara was able to embrace her two friends.

"Hey, it's easy for you 'retirees'!" Babs responded without a hint of rancour. "Those of us who still have a city to protect need to be careful how they schedule their time!"

"Oh, please," Tara said. "Don't pull the suffering martyr act, Babs! You two love the buzz too much to ever give it up!"

Barbara laughed and turned to greet Karen, who was carrying several shopping bags and looked like the trip had been harder than Tara had let on. Dick was about to greet the former Bumblebee too when an imperious hand tugged on the leg of his costume.

Dick knelt down and smiled at the little four-year-old girl with green-tinted skin, green-tinted long blonde hair and delicately pointed elfin ears who peeked out from behind Tara's legs. "Are you going to say hello to me too?" Theresa 'Terri' Logan smiled in a way that Dick was sure had Gar wrapped around her little finger.

"Of course I will!" Dick responded. He then took the little girl's hand and dropped a courtly kiss onto the back, making her little round face light up in pleasure. "Hello, Terri. How are you?" Terri bowed her head a little shyly, her long hair falling across her eyes.

"I'm fine Uncle Dick," she said quietly.

Dick raised a finger. "Now, what do you know to do when I'm in costume?"

The girl frowned in thought for a moment before she blushed in embarrassment. "Oh! Yeah! I remember! Sorry, _Uncle Nightwing_!" Dick had noticed something but it was only at that moment that he had to respond. Terri's hand had become _uncomfortably_ hot. He let go reflexively and shook his hand to cool it. The girl's face flamed red with shame and embarrassment. "Oh, no, was I going all fire-y again?"

"Don't worry about it, kiddo," Dick assured her immediately. "No harm done." He looked up at Tara. "Has she stared manifesting powers?"

The geokinetic woman nodded, biting her lip in worry. "It started just after her fourth birthday," she reported. "She literally _melted_ into the bath-water. Now she's started hiding by literally melding into the soil in the yard and nearly _bursts into flames_ sometimes if she gets embarrassed or angry! Let alone the windstorm when she's in a hurry!" Tara noticed her first child's obvious worry and caressed her face reassuringly. "It isn't your fault honey; Mommy loves you still. She just gets a little worried sometimes when it happens!"

Dick stood up and squeezed Tara's shoulder. "Are you handling it? If not, I could ask Wally or Donna to help."

"It isn't that different to how my powers started manifesting," Tara said. "I'm on top of it but… Well, me and Gar…"

"We don't want her to feel obligated to be a costumed hero when she grows up," Gar finished, wrapping his arms around his wife's waist from behind and hugging her, nuzzling her long blonde hair affectionately. Tara leaned into her mate's embrace thankfully, forgetting her worries for her obviously-powerful daughter for a moment.

Dick nodded. "You won't find me insisting that she put on a mask, Tara, not unless she wants to."

"That's the worry," Tara said dispiritedly. "She's _too much_ like me and Gar. She'll _want_ to."

This adult conversation clearly went completely over Terri's head and bored her. "Mommy," she said urgently, tugging on the leg of Tara's pants. "Can I go play with Jerry and Rachel now?"

Jerry was Jericho Stone, Vic and Karen's son. However, Dick wasn't familiar with the name 'Rachel' as a playmate for Terri. He caught Babs's eye and saw that she didn't know who 'Rachel' was either. Then he caught the slight motion of her eyes and, reacting to the cue learned from years working together as Robin and Batgirl, and later Nightwing and Phoenix, he turned his head just in time to catch the look of horror, shame and embarrassment on Kori's face.

* * *

"So… what's the story, Kori?" Dick asked as he watched Terri and Jerry play with a tawny-skinned, green-eyed girl with long raven-black hair of about four years age.

"Please, Friend Dick," Kori whispered. "Do not force these words from me."

"Kori, I know enough about Tamaran culture to know that there is as much a taboo about unwed motherhood there as there is here," Barbara said. "I also know that, if you were married, you would be wearing a silver armband on your left arm etched with your husband's family sigil." Barbara reached forward and touched the younger woman's shoulder gently. "Kori… you weren't… forced by someone on Tamaran were you? During the Civil War?"

Kori's reaction was sudden and violent. She threw Barbara's hand off her shoulder and whirled on the human woman furiously. "NO!" she shouted. "Rachell'r is no child of rape! How dare you say such things about her?"

Barbara jumped back in surprise, falling instinctively into an aggressive defensive posture. Dick got in between his wife and former girlfriend. Despite their years working together and the fact that Dick had never done anything to aggravate jealousy between them, the two were never quite entirely at ease with each other and arguments had got violent before. "Stand down, Starfire!" he snapped. "You too, Phoenix! That's an order, both of you! You two are adults and I expect you to act like it!"

Hearing her code-name made Kori instinctively snap to attention. Suddenly all the fight drained out of her and she covered her face. "I… My apologies, Friend Dick," Dick cleared his throat and Kori continued. "And to you, Friend Barbara. I… was simply caught off guard. I should have informed you of these events earlier but… I did not know _how_ to do so. I _still_ do not know how to do so. I fear that it will destroy your friendship with me and I do not want that but… Oh, X'hal, she brings me such comfort and joy! I cannot be ashamed of her, no matter how hard I try!"

"Kori," Babs said gently. "Please, we're your friends. Please tell us and I swear that Dick and I will not judge you. Please, tell us who is Rachell'r's father."

Kori sucked in a deep breath. "I will hold you to that promise, Friend Barbara," she said. She looked over at Rachell'r, playing with the other two kids in the play-room Vic had built in the Tower. "Friend Dick… Rachell'r is _your_ daughter."

Barbara felt her heart shatter in her chest. She wanted to curl up in a ball and die. She would have run from the scene if it were not for the look of horrified incomprehension on her husband's face.

The Graysons almost missed Kori's quiet continuation. "Maybe it would have been better if you had never known," she said thoughtfully. "However, she deserves to know of her father's species and culture, to know her father… In any case, I fear that Tamaran will not long be safe for the bastard child of the Queen's sister."

_To be continued…_


	2. Confessions

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

* * *

**Disclaimer**

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Confessions**

"So," Barbara said, hugging her knees to her chest as she sat on the bed and watched her husband pace in front of the window in their shared quarters in Titans Tower.

"So," Dick responded. "What do you want me to say, Babs?"

"I want to know _how this happened_!" Barbara's voice quickly rose to a scream. "Tamaranian gestation is about ten months. Rachell'r is four and a half years old! That means she was conceived a little under five and a half years ago! That was during No Man's Land. _After_ we had started dating, Dick! What was it? Did you need a woman who could _still wrap her legs around you_?"

"DAMN IT NO!" Dick shouted back and punched the wall, hard, leaving knuckle marks in the plaster. "Babs, think rationally! Kori _wasn't even on Earth_ at that time! I _couldn't_ have been sleeping with her then!"

"She wasn't on Earth _as far as I know_," Barbara hissed in response. "Rachell'r suggests otherwise!"

"I don't understand it," Dick said, dropping his head into his hands. "Barb, I swear that the last time I slept with Kori was before she and Blackfire left to return to Tamaran to overthrow the usurper who murdered their parents. That was _over seven years ago_!" Dick suddenly walked over to the bed and sat down next to Barbara. The redheaded woman flinched away from him and refused to meet his gaze. Dick responded by grabbing her wrists and forcing her closer. "Babs, look at me," he growled. "_Look at me_!" Easily snaring both his wife's delicate wrists in one hand, he used the other to tilt up her chin so he could look into her tear-reddened green eyes. "Babs, do you trust me? Babs, I swear that what I've told you is true. _Do you trust me_?"

"I…" Barbara was shocked that her voice sounded so weak. "I… I want to Dick but… But… Rachell'r! _How do you explain her_?"

Dick released her and sighed. "I can't," he admitted. "I don't understand how this could have happened."

Barbara looked at her husband and, with that infallible sense that never let her down before, she knew that he was telling the truth. Besides, she knew Dick. If he had slept with Kori when she had calculated that he would have had to for Rachell'r to be his, he would have admitted it, especially after being presented with the child. "Dick… Could Kori be lying for some reason? Trying to pass off someone else's child as yours? I mean, like I said unwed motherhood is frowned at on Tamaran and it would be politically embarrassing for Blackfire…"

Dick shook his head. "I could never believe that Kori would lie to me over something like this," he said firmly. He reached out with a strong arm and drew his wife into his embrace. So small and delicate. It was weird to remember that, when they first met, she towered head and shoulders over him. "We've been through worse than this, Barb," he murmured into her hair. "We'll figure this out, you'll see. This is just another mystery to solve for the Dynamic Duo of Blüdhaven."

Barbara couldn't help but laugh at Dick's attempt to lighten the mood. "Dick… What if she _is_ lying, for whatever reason?"

Dick sucked in a deep breath. "Then our friendship will be broken and she will need to work hard if it will ever be restored." He looked his wife in the eyes. "I won't let anything come between us, Babs. I swear it."

Barbara nodded uncertainly. Dick lowered his head and kissed her, just on that spot where her jaw-line reached her ear where she was most sensitive. Purring in response, she breathed in her husband's natural scent and suddenly, instinctively, she desired him and needed to reaffirm her claim to him and his love.

Nonetheless, as she lay, basking in the afterglow, tucked into her mate's shoulder, she couldn't entirely rid herself of her fears. She loved Dick so much. However, could what they have really go unchanged after this? Especially if it seemed that Kori had done something for Dick that Barbara desperately wished she could and feared was forever beyond her ability.

* * *

The Bridal Shower.

There are many traditions, some old and some new, associated with this night. Some were naturally altered for the metahuman-heavy grouping now in Raven's room in the Tower.

Rae simply didn't indulge in alcohol all that much. For a woman who prized her self-control under all circumstances, the loss of control that alcohol brought about was viewed with a combination of distaste and fear. She noted with some asperity that Tara and also (much to her surprise) Kori and Barbara were more than making up for this. Rae had also noted that Barbara and Kori were making a point of sitting as far apart as possible. This quite surprised the pale-skinned sorceress as she thought that the understandable mutual awkwardness between the two women had been largely resolved after their heart-to-heart at Barbara's hen party over two years previously.

Rae knew about the identity of Rachell'r's putative father, of course. She was a telepath and Kori wasn't that effective in protecting her thoughts. Not that intrusive means were necessary in this case. At the moment Dick saw the little hybrid girl, the Tamaranian woman's mind virtually _shouted_ that she was Dick's daughter. Rae really wanted to kick Kori or slap some sense into her. Admittedly, things had pretty much rolled out of her control and she had been motivated always by a desire to protect Dick's happiness. Even so, there had to have been a better way to handle this than this uncontrolled revelation that seemed to be almost _intended_ to cause Dick and Barbara the most pain (although Rae could never believe that Kori could be that malicious).

With a sigh, Rae cancelled the spell that had the… _adult gift_ that Tara had bought her pursuing the blonde geokinetic around the room. After the flying sexual aid clattered to the floor, Tara sagged back onto one of the pillows scattered around the room on which the various ladies of the first-generation of Titans were sitting with a groan of relief.

Donna leaned forwards at a dangerous angle. The former Wonder Girl and current Amazon Woman grinned at Rae in an unfocussed way. Rae couldn't help but be surprised that Donna _could_ get intoxicated. Amazons had a reputation for being nearly immune to alcohol. However, given how Donna was swaying, she suspected that reputation was owed entirely to Wonder Woman's legendary uptightness.

"So, that negligee really works for you, Rae!" Donna said with a malicious smile, gesturing at the revealing Tamaranian Silk night-wear that was the gift from Kori. "Do you think Tony will prefer it off or on?"

Rae blushed brightly. She was hardly a virgin; even so, discussing her sex life, even with friends, made her distinctly uncomfortable. "I'm hoping that we can adapt either way," she replied dryly. Donna, for some reason, thought that was uproariously funny.

"The first night you are together as a woman and her husband is special, Rae," Barbara announced with a warm smile. "Somehow… the fact that you have just sworn yourself to them before an audience gives the experience an extra intensity!" The redheaded vigilante's smile jacked up a few notches mischievously. "Of course, having lingerie like that will probably focus his mind even more!"

"Was it super-intense for you, Babs?" Tara wanted to know. From her slightly hazy smirk, Rae bet that she was remembering _her_ first night.

"Tara!" Karen gasped, scandalised.

"No, it's okay," Barbara responded. "I want to answer. Tara, Dick was my very first and I was his. I had known him since he was ten and had desired him ever since my body awoke. We were…" Barbara's eyes had lost focus. "He was fifteen and I was seventeen. It was in his room at Wayne Manor. I'm still surprised that we worked out which bit went where but…" Barbara shot Kori a look that made Rae feel nervous. "When we climaxed together that night, I knew that we were meant for each other. I knew that we would be together forever!"

_Uh oh_, Rae thought. Kori's mouth had dropped open in a very undignified way and she could tell that her alien friend was struggling to find a response. "So," Kori said with an edge of acid in her tone. "Why then did he flee Gotham for Jump City if he was so fortunate in finding his _soul mate_?"

Barbara's lips curled maliciously. "Oh… didn't he tell _you_ the tale, Kori?" she nearly spat. Kori's eyes narrowed at the implied insult. "Batman came between us. He forbade me from _ever_ seeing Dick again; ordered me to give up being Batgirl too! He also decided that he wanted to 'protect' Dick by forcing him to stop acting as Robin. Dick left Gotham with the intention to prove to Batman… and to himself I suppose… that he had what it takes!"

"And he succeeded!" Kori snapped.

Barbara blinked in surprise. "Of course he did!" she replied. "I never doubted that!" Both women briefly wore a confused look on their faces at the unexpected agreement.

"Damn, that guy's a stud," Donna moaned. "Two super-hot girls, both willing to scratch each other's faces off for him! Why don't you two buy a clue and share him already?" Two pillows, one with a lot of Tamaranian super-strength behind it, struck Donna in the face and the tipsy amazon fell onto her back, giggling raucously all the way.

Rae meanwhile, couldn't help smiling. No matter how much they might provoke each other, Donna was right insofar as to say that Kori and Barbara would always have loving Dick in common. She decided to steer the conversation back onto less charged ground. "Thank you for the gift, Barbara. I was not expecting a _book_ based on my prior experience of these sort of events."

"Well, it's from one bibliophile to another," Barbara explained. "It is a book of methodology and positions that is allegedly older than the _Karma Sutra_. Learn from that what you will." The redheaded woman winked.

Rae's face flamed and she put down the book as if it were an armed bomb. Given the association between sex and magic in some ancient cultures, it might _indeed_ be something like that.

* * *

"Why are you here, Barbara Grayson?"

Barbara looked back at Kori, noticing the pre-fight wariness in the Tamaranian woman. She sighed. "I don't know, Kori. Morbid curiosity maybe?"

Puzzled, Kori walked over to stand beside Barbara and joined the human woman in her silent contemplation of Terri, Rachell'r and Jerry, asleep on the couch in the Tower's common room. "Why morbid? Whilst I understand your anger at my keeping this from you both, I do not understand why you also seem sad!"

"I'm sad because it's _not fair_!" Barbara spat. "I loved Dick from the first moment that I saw him, Kori! Yet that _control freak_ of a foster father drove us apart! When I finally manage to catch up with him, he's in a relationship with _you_! So, I lose the chance of growing up with him and spending our youths together!" Barbara's voice began to rise in frustration. "Okay, I'm _willing_ to take that. That thing about 'love meaning you need to be ready to let them go?' It's true: If he was going to be happy with you, I'd have taken that no matter how much it hurt!" Kori was about to interrupt but Babs was on a roll. "It wasn't going to be that simple though! No, in the end, he _does_ come back into my life, but only after I've been _crippled_ by this madman _who was just trying to prove a point_! So we can't share half the stuff that I hoped we would! I couldn't be his equal and partner anymore! There has always, _always_, been a part of me that wondered if I was just a _pity fuck_! Even now! Even after _two and a half years_ of marriage, I wonder if we'd still be together if Vic hadn't given me back my legs and…!"

The crack as Kori's hand struck Barb's cheek echoed around the room. Barbara fell silent, clutching her slapped cheek in shock. Kori glowered at the human woman dangerously. "Make no mistake, Barbara Grayson, I would demand that you face me in the arena of honour for so slandering Dick's name, if it were not clear that distress had robbed you of your _wits_! How _dare_ you claim to have his love if you mistrust him so?"

Much to Kori's surprise, Barbara fell to her knees. "That's why I _hate_ you," Barbara whimpered. "Because you made me lose trust in my husband! Because you made me doubt what _I know _he feels for me! Because… because… because _you've given him the one thing I want to give him more than anything else… and I __can't_!" Barbara's final declaration ended on a wail and the woman began to weep.

Kori groaned and dropped down next to the distressed woman. "Friend Barbara," she said, drawing her into a deep hug. "Never would I wish to cause either of you pain. I was _joyful_ when you and Dick found each other! I knew that my life would prevent me from being with Dick! I knew that you were the first to hold his heart and would be the wife of his heart and soul! I _always_ knew that! _That_ is why I hid Rachell'r from you! I knew that it would cause your relationship harm!"

"Then… then why?" Barbara managed to sob out

"Why did I bring her to Earth now? I told the truth, Friend Barbara. These are hard times on Tamaran. My sister, Kommand'r, is a good queen but has no heir of her own flesh as of yet. Under our people's law, Rachell'r is thus her heir and, whilst Kommand'r has acknowledged her, many would _never_ be willing to accept a human half-blood as their queen. Revolt and unrest stir and the Usurper's supporters were never fully purged from our world. It is _not safe_ for her on Tamaran. It may _never_ be safe until my sister has a child of her own, possibly not even then! My place is at the side of my queen but I dare not leave my daughter where she may be the target of a plot! I had hoped… I had hoped that you and Dick, my friends, would be able to be for her what duty and politics mean that I _cannot_…!"

Barbara looked up into Kori's subtly shining green eyes, her mouth open in shock. "You… you want Dick to look after her?"

"And you too," Kori said. "You are wise, knowledgeable, honourable and as strong a warrior as Dick. Together you would be able to raise her to be the person that I could only dream that she would be if she were raised in the poisonous sea that is the court on Tamaran!" Kori released her grip on Barbara and looked down. "Now, I fear, that will not be possible. By my foolishness and clumsiness I have ruined my daughter's chance to know her father and, perhaps ruined any hope of her finding refuge here on Earth." Kori prepared herself to rise, flee and never return to this world.

"Kori, _wait_!" Barbara sucked down her sobs and reached out for her rival. "Kori, you know Dick as well as I do. He would _never_ turn Rachell'r away when she needed refuge. I won't make him do it either. It would be _wrong_! She _needs_ to know him… No matter how much it will hurt me, this is the _right_ thing to do."

"Friend Barbara… _thank you_," Kori hugged Babs again. "I understand what this generosity and love have cost you… _will_ cost you. Thank you. You have my eternal gratitude and I will always be in your debt!"

Babs managed a shaky smile. "Kori… don't thank me for doing the right thing."

Kori drew back but didn't release her hold on Barbara's shoulders immediately. "Friend Barbara… Forgive me but… why do you not have a child of your own?" Barbara's breathing caught in a sudden sob and Kori continued in a more frantic tone. "I… I would have thought with how you love each other… Is this something you have put aside for the sake of your struggles to protect your city?"

"We've tried, Kori… We've tried…!" Barbara's hand unconsciously touched her abdomen. "You know what the Joker did to me. The bullet… it damaged my uterus. The wound healed but… but…" Barbara covered her mouth for a moment and needed to take a deep breath. "After Vic replaced my spine, we decided to try for a child. It took nearly a year before I conceived, Kori and… and I… I miscarried… Three months in…" Barbara sobbed. "Little Bruce… I wasn't strong enough for him…! The doctors… the doctors say it was because the damage the Joker's bullet did. They don't know if I'll ever be able to carry to term." Kori's face told a story of a thousand words. "That's why I was so determined to become Phoenix. At least this way, I can do _something_ for him!"

Kori sighed. "Barbara, do not underestimate yourself. You are doing _so much_ for him by the simple fact of your presence. By your love and companionship, you have given him strength and balance. Never believe that he does not love you."

"My head knows that," Barbara said with a shaky smile. "My heart, though…? So… that's why I'm so angry. I'm jealous of you… of Rachell'r. She represents everything that I can never have!" The human woman drew herself up slightly. "That doesn't change my decision though. She'll stay with us. She needs a home and she and Dick need to be able to spend time together." She surprised herself by smiling in a shaky way and even managing a horse laugh. "Oh, I'm sure there'll be a lot of hard adjustments in going from the daughter of the queen's sister to the foster daughter of an ordinary cop and his wife the librarian… but I think we'll manage."

Kori leant forward and kissed Barbara gently. "Thank you," she said. "Your love and your generosity puts me to shame."

"And your trust and understanding puts _me_ to shame," Barbara replied before hugging with all the strength she could muster the mother of the child of the man she loved with all her heart.

* * *

"Dick?"

Dick looked down at his wife. She had returned from the Bridal Shower to throw herself into his arms, kissing him with a desperate intensity that shocked him. Now, the two of them were lying in bed spooned up against each other, Babs in front. "Yeah, Angel?"

"Dick, we _are_ going to take Rachell'r in. She needs more than a home, she needs a family. She needs _you_."

Dick was relieved to hear that but was more than a little shocked. "I'm glad you feel that way, Babs, I really am. We still don't know where she came from though!"

"That doesn't matter," Barbara replied. "That innocent little girl needs us no matter where she came from." The woman sighed, drawing a deep breath. "I _do_ love you, Boy Blunder. More than anything."

Dick couldn't help but grin at hearing Babs's earliest nickname for him. "I love you too, Red. Nothing would ever make me want to give you up."

Barbara smiled and turned in Dick's arms so that they were nose-to-nose. "Make love to me," she murmured. "Make me yours, body, mind, heart and soul… forever and ever."

"Forever and ever," Dick confirmed before kissing his wife.

_To be continued…_


	3. Xenobiology 101

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

* * *

**Disclaimer**

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

_[Text in italics and square brackets] - _Spoken in Tamaranian

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Xenobiology 101**

_[Mama, what is going on?]_ Rachell'r asked her mother in her native tongue, quite confused as she stood in a formal gown in the Common Room of Titans Tower.

Visiting Earth had been an exciting experience for the daughter of Koriand'r. After all, she had never before even been outside the capital city of Tamaran. So, a voyage on her mother's personal scout ship to a planet that was very nearly on the far side of the galactic disc from her homeworld was quite the adventure! There was so much to see that the little girl's mind was still whirling, trying to work out what she wanted to see first!

What was even better was meeting and playing with other children! There were few children in the Capitol and few of them were ever allowed into the Palace. Even then, it was for some formal occasion and Rachell'r rarely had a chance to play with them. Terri and Jerry _couldn't_ be more different than those children! She had played more games in the past three days than she could recall previously in her _lifetime_! Racing around! Building cityscapes out of odd-coloured and strangely-shaped polymer blocks! Splashing in the pool! Hiding and go seek! It was all so _new_ and _glorious_! Sometimes she honestly resented when she had to go to her sleep!

_[There's someone that I want you to meet, Little Sunrise,]_ her mother informed her.

_[Who?]_

Her mother considered that question. [_I have often spoken to you of your father.]_

That seemed a bit out-of-context to Rachell'r, but she was schooled to courtesy and so responded. [_The great warrior who lives on another world? The one who defied and defeated monsters far stronger than he? The one who gave protection and honour to all who needed it without expectation of reward and protected a city from evil when no one else would?]_

Her mother smiled and nodded. [_The same,]_ she said. [_Rachell'r, _this_ is his homeworld.]_

The little black-haired girl thought about this for a moment. She expected… Well, she didn't know _what_ to expect really. Should not her father have been waiting for her on the bridge of his flagship, waiting to take her to his palace? Certainly, that is what happened to her peers on Tamaran when their fathers returned to them!

Her mother seemed to read the confusion on her face. _[__Little Sunrise, what I am about to tell you may be hard to understand, but I must ask you to trust me.]_ Rachell'r looked up at her mother in confusion. The thought of _not_ trusting her mother was utterly alien to her. Her mother drew in a deep breath before continuing. _[__Little Sunrise, when I left your father to return to our homeworld, I did not expect to ever see him again. Even if our Queen and I were successful in our quest to restore our family to its position, it was unlikely that I would ever have been able to leave to see him, given the weight of my duties. The one thing that I never expected that our last night together would have borne fruit in you. My beloved daughter, before a few days ago, he did not know of you. I had not told him. I was afraid to, especially when I learnt that he had found a wife in a sister warrior of his.]_

The raven-haired little girl gasped. _[__He betrayed you?]_ Rachell'r's question was uttered in a suitably horrified tone.

Her mother squeezed her shoulder in warning._ [__Never believe that,]_ she scolded. _[__My daughter, I knew that our time together was past. I was _happy_ to learn that he found a mate with whom to share his life when I could not. It was _never_ my intention that he should know of you, for fear that it would hurt him_._]_

Rachell'r tried to understand this but she could not. _[__Why are you telling me this?]_

Kori sighed and switched to English. "Rachel," she said, deliberately using the human form of her name, "the reason that I'm saying this is because your father now knows about you. He wants to meet you. I want you to meet him too."

"M… My father?" Rachell'r looked around herself excitedly, probably searching for a warrior bedecked in gold and decorations for valour attended on by a legion of soldiers and servants. "Where?"

Then something happened that would always stick in the little girl's mind. A _shadow_ detached itself from under the doorway. A black-haired human male, wearing a black single-piece garment with a blue corvine across the chest and wearing a mask that covered his eyes. No sound betrayed his movements as he walked towards her and finally dropped onto one knee before her. Was this a _phantom_ come to drag her down to perdition as a punishment for sneaking into the kitchen with Terri and taking some Iced Creams without asking Mama? She clutched her mother's hand tightly and only her pride stopped her from hiding behind her legs. The man took off his mask and revealed wonderful blue eyes that shone with a kindness that touched the little girl's heart in a way that she could not understand. "Who are you?" she asked, more than a little afraid.

"Hello, Rachel," he said. "My name is Dick. I'm your father."

"My… my… _father_?" the girl parroted dumbly. The man nodded. She looked up at her mother helplessly.

"He speaks the truth, Little Sunrise," Kori said quietly.

Much to both adults' surprise, Rachell'r bowed her head and crossed her hands over her heart before starting some kind of formal speech in Tamaranian. Dick recognised it because it was, minus the stuttering as well as stumbled and missed words, the same formal acknowledgement and greeting that Kori had given her father that time the Titans had visited Tamaran. It touched his heart because, he realised, this was clearly something that his daughter had longed to do for a very long time. Finally, the girl's speech trailed off; she had forgotten the ending phrases of the ceremony, much to her frustration. Suddenly, a gentle finger touched her chin and forced her to look up into Dick's blue eyes, her own green orbs filled with longing and hope. "F… Father?" she asked.

Dick nodded. "That's right, Rachel."

"Why… Why have you not come for me before?" There was pain in her voice that reflected all the confused sense of loss that she had felt after she had realised that other children had something that she did not; something _important_.

"I didn't know, princess," Dick said before adding something that was utterly true. "If I'd known about you, I would have seen you before now. _Nothing_ would have stopped me from seeing you." Kori somehow managed to stop herself from simply collapsing and dying of the shame and horror she felt at the truth in those words.

"Are… are you going to live with me from now on?" Rachell'r's voice had dropped to a whisper. Hope filled her, hope so intense that she could barely stand it.

"I hope that I can," Dick responded.

"PAPA!" The little girl actually _flew_ forwards, wrapping her arms around Dick's neck in a death-grip. "_My Papa!_" Rachell'r managed to whisper and then all she could do is cry onto her father's strong shoulder.

* * *

Barbara angrily wiped the tears from her eyes, replaced the flame red mask of Phoenix over her eyes and turned with a snarl from the security monitor. "He's still yours, Red," She looked over into the unmistakable one human and one glowing red electronic eye of Victor Stone, Cyborg. "Nothing about that little girl changes that."

"Maybe," she agreed. "But there _is_ a part of him that I lost to her today." Victor opened his mouth to reply but Barbara overrode his words. "Don't get me wrong, Vic. I don't resent this at all. This is something of Dick that belongs to Rachell'r and no-one else. The bond between a parent and their first child…" The redheaded woman shook her head. "This is theirs by right and… and I _am_ happy for them both that they've found each other."

Vic nodded wisely. "He won't love you any less, Barbara. You have to believe it. He'll love Rachel for the rest of her life but you'll still have your own unique first place in his heart." He looked at the monitor. "Don't think that Kori's going to get off easily from this either. She didn't handle this well and she knows it. Tell the truth, it'll be a long time before she forgives herself for what she did to him… to her… to all three of you really."

Barbara sighed. "Yeah… tough times all around."

Victor nodded. "So, what did you need to know?"

Barbara nodded. "I understand that you've got a database of Tamaranian physiology and medicine in the Tower's medical computers?"

"That's right. We needed it to treat Kori and later Blackfire when she stayed with us. Tamaranians are tougher than baseline humans but they can get hurt in an intense enough fight and they have some unique medical problems of their own."

"So I understand," Barbara said, grinning a little as she remembered the story of the time Gar had to _spank_ Kori to cure a strange malady when the Tamaranian woman's organs all got out of position. She sobered up and returned to business. "Vic, there's something about Rachell'r's origin that we… Dick and I… don't understand. She had to have been conceived about five and a half years ago. However, Dick says that, before our wedding, he hadn't seen Kori since she left for Tamaran, _seven _years ago!"

Victor nodded. "He'd be right. Five and a half years ago, the Civil War on Tamaran would have just come to an end; Kori would have been helping Blackfire get the government back on its feet. There's no way she could have slipped away to come to see him here on Earth." The dark-skinned man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You're right. That's weird. I did a DNA analysis on Rachel when Kori arrived with her to satisfy myself of her parentage but I didn't think about how she could have come about in the first place!" Victor turned to leave the control room. "Come on, let's go to the medical bay and check the computer. I'll bet there are answers there."

* * *

"Okay, here is something that I never thought that I would see," Tim Drake, Robin, announced to three of his fellow Titans, Cassie Cain, Batgirl, Susanne 'Cissy' King-Jones, Arrowette, and Rose Wilson, Ravager.

"What?" Rose asked, shooting the leader of the Teen Titans a confused look.

"Dick Grayson, Nightwing, the Dark Knight of Blüdhaven, in full costume, playing with a kid. _His_ kid, moreover!"

Cassie considered that statement carefully. Brought up by her father to be the perfect warrior but almost completely retarded in her ability to communicate or understand normal social interactions, the young Asiatic woman had to think carefully before replying. "What so strange?" she asked in her stilted, uncomfortable voice. "Dick play with his child!"

Tim smiled at his girlfriend and, as always, showed her the respect of treating her question seriously and giving it a full answer. "My big bro might be fun to be around," he explained, "but he's never been at ease with young children. I think it's because he lost his parents when he was young and had to grow up quickly."

Cassie pondered over that response.

"I think it's cool," Cissy remarked as her team-mate puzzled over the unknowable mysteries of paternal love. "I mean… Okay. It's kind of freaky him doing it in _costume_!"

Tim laughed. "Bat-Clan rules, Cissy. The costume is the real you; _Everything else_ is the mask!"

Rose grinned and waggled her eyebrows. "I was wondering why you Bats were all psychos!" she teased. "So, do Batman and Catwoman…?"

"They call it 'Date Night'!" Tim revealed in a dark tone of voice, making Rose splutter. _Never_ in her wildest dreams had she _imagined_…!

Cassie finally completed her consideration of her boyfriend's words. "Different when own child," she finally said. "Heart touched."

Rose's one blue-grey eye darkened sadly. "Only with the good guys, Cassie. Only with the good guys."

Cassie's own golden eyes darkened and narrowed. "Cassie knows."

Tara entered at this moment, carrying a clipboard. She was wearing the costume of Terra for the first time in years, as she was going to cover Raven's normal job of mentoring the female Teen Titans whilst Raven was off on her honeymoon. She and Raven would be working together for these two weeks to help the kids transition over to her leadership. "Okay, Robin, Batgirl, Arrowette, Ravager, heads up!" she called.

The four teens looked over at Tara and, somehow, she resisted the urge to flinch or even run screaming as she looked at Rose, taking in her distinctive family colours of black and tan over lightweight polymer chain-mail. It was an indication of how terribly Slade Wilson had treated her, torturing and brainwashing her into becoming his 'apprentice', that it was hard to even _look_ upon this young woman wearing his colours without feeling a touch of fear, even now, over a decade later.

Rose saw the fear in Terra's eyes before the older woman was able to hide it and felt the same sinking, dispiriting guilt she always felt when she met one of her father's innumerable victims. She wished there was something she could do to amend for the pain he caused so many people. She had visited Terra secretly, placed one of her swords in the blonde woman's hands and begged her to strike her down if it would ease her pain. Instead, Terra had told her that the best recompense she could give was to continue on the path she had chosen – to become a heroine and turn the colours of Deathstroke the Terminator from a symbol of fear to a symbol of hope.

Terra could never hate Rose. If anything, the girl's story simply proved that _she_ was not a special case. Slade Wilson was a monster and _violated_ every single person he ever met, even his own children. What kind of _demon _would force his fourteen-year-old daughter to gouge out her own left eye to prove her loyalty to him when she had balked at killing some random innocent? What possible justification could there be for filling a half-grown teenager with psychotropic and mutagenic drugs to induce a homicidal psychosis to make her the pitiless killer her wanted her to be?

No, overall, Terra's greatest regret about the manner of Slade's death was that Joe had to die to achieve that goal. Frankly, putting down that _rabid animal_ was not worth the death of even an insect. If only they had got to him before he had started to indulge his vile _lusts_ on his youngest child. Terra made the point of walking across the room and squeezing Rose's shoulder, making the eighteen-year-old orphaned mistress assassin smile uncertainly. "Okay kids, I've got the patrol roster for today." The geokinetic looked at the four expectant faces. "What, no metas?" she snarked.

"Don't need them," Cassie remarked levelly. Terra had seen Cassie wiping out the robot practice combatant that Tim and Dick reverently called 'Zogger' (officially 'Self-Mutilating Defence Training Regime Mk4'), so she could well believe it.

Terra grinned. "Okay, then, we're going to be patrolling in pairs by opposing quadrants today…"

* * *

Kori watched as Dick played with Rachell'r… with _their daughter_ and, for the first time in a while, entertained hope that this was going to work.

"So, when were you planning to tell Dick about it, Kori?"

The Tamaranian woman jumped out of her skin. It appeared that Barbara had learnt the Bat skill of appearing at someone's shoulder without any kind of warning. Instinctively placing a hand over her pounding heart, she looked at Barbara and wished she could see the eyes of Dick's wife through the white, polarising night vision lenses on her mask. "I… I'm sorry Friend Barbara?"

Barb didn't immediately reply. Rather she simply stared at Kori, making the Tamaranian woman feel like she was a child being disciplined by a parent for some misdeed. "Interesting fact I've just learnt about Tamaranian physiology. Did you ever tell Dick about the pouch in your uterus that lets you store sperm and keep it viable for up to five years?"

"Ah." Kori shook her head. "As surprising as this may sound, Friend Barbara, Dick and I did not often find a cause to discuss the comparative physiology of our two species. The organ you refer to, the _d'kthal_, evolved long ago so that females could continue to reproduce even if the males were wiped out in the predator-heavy environment of primordial Tamaran."

Barb nodded. "That's what it said in the file in the Tower's medical computers. I was just wondering if you ever mentioned to Dick that you had the ability to conceive his child long after the two of you ended your relationship."

Kori blushed as she realised where this conversation was going. "I did not intend to deceive," she said, an edge of pleading in her tone. Barbara maintained her basilisk stare, an unmoving, near-supernatural black, red and gold silhouette standing in judgement over yet another miscreant as she had so many times before. It had approximately the same effect on Kori as it did on pushers and muggers on the streets of Blüdhaven. Kori felt the urge to cower and found herself wringing her hands in an unconscious gesture of nervousness and guilt. "X'hal! I would _never_ have done that to him, Barbara! The operation of the d'kthal is no more consciously controlled that the operation of the kidneys or liver!"

"But there is a known, recognised and comparatively simple procedure to purge it of its contents."

Kori nodded. "It is also disgusting and deeply uncomfortable; As bad as the procedure that you know as a colonic irrigation! It isn't the sort of thing anyone does unless it is necessary!" She tried to meet Barb's eyes and failed. "I did not consider it necessary. Barbara, Dick and I never used birth control. Why should we? We are of two different species from entirely different worlds! We ought not even to have been genetically compatible enough to have conceived a child!" Kori covered her face with her hands. "I felt… _immensely foolish_ when the healer confirmed that I was with child." She sighed. "I can only assume that the stresses of anticipating the coming struggle to overthrow the Usurper triggered my body's instinctive response to store my mate's seed. Once the struggle was over, it followed the age-old rules of our biology and fertilised an ova with what it stored. I still do not know for certain how it was possible!"

Barbara placed a comforting hand on Kori's shoulder. "I thought so," she said at last. "I had to hear it with your own voice though. There is a history in your culture of women using this ability to snare a man against his will."

Kori snorted. "They are also considered the worst sort of… what is the human word…? Ah, yes, the _worst sort of whore_." She ought to have felt some anger at Barbara suspecting her thus but, in truth, she could not blame the human woman. If the situation were reversed, she would entertain the same suspicions and would likely not be so clinical about confirming their veracity.

"That probably also explains how it was possible for Dick's sperm to impregnate you. The d'kthal regenerates the sperm cells it stores. It would have spliced Dick's DNA with your own to do so, turning it into a human/Tamaranian hybrid that would have been compatible with your ova."

"Yes, or so my healer informed me."

"I'm assuming that you _have_ performed the purge now?"

Kori rolled her eyes. "Most absolutely, certainly and definitely _yes_. As much as I love her and welcomed her existence, one black-haired little surprise baby is enough for one life-time, thanking you most kindly."

Barb snorted. "Somehow," she said at last, "it had to happen this way." Kori shot her an odd look. "Seriously, Kori, this is Dick we're talking about here. Since when has anything in his life happened normally or according to expectations? You were just following the trend!"

Terra never did work out what Starfire and Phoenix were laughing about so hard that it interrupted her briefing of the four younger Titans.

_To be continued…_


	4. Just Like Old Times

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

* * *

**Disclaimer**

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Just Like Old Times**

Midnight in Jump City. Terra was sitting in a very familiar seat but one she had not occupied for many years. The operator's chair in the Monitor Room, where it was possible to observe CCTV and media broadcasts as well as listen in to the communications of the emergency services. During her… _indisposition _after Slade, this was the first regular Titan duty that she had carried out after she recovered from her traumatic amnesia. Then, as now, it reassured her that she was part of the team.

It was an unusually busy night. Robin, Arrowette, Miss Martian and Ray were tackling a gang rumble in the waterfront warehouse district. Ravager and Batgirl were following a suspicious convoy of cars that could include the limousine owned by the West Coast's most notorious racketeer. Supergirl, Superboy and Wonder Girl were busy helping with rescue and the clean-up after a train derailment in the mountains south-east of the city.

That is why the silent alarm repeater for the First National Bank Tower, the biggest bullion repository in Jump City, was distinctly unwelcome. She activated the com-link. "Terra to Superboy," she called. "Kon, we've got an intruder alarm at the First National pyramid."

"_Can't help, Terra,_" came the immediate response from the Kryptonian clone. "_That train crash undermined a whole hillside; Me, Kara and Cassie are busy evacuating and trying to stop half a neighbourhood sliding off down the hill. Give us… thirty minutes?_"

Terra shook her head. "Too long, Superboy. These guys are close enough to the waterfront to be away in that time." She switched frequencies. "Ravager, are you and Batgirl available?"

There was a long pause, long enough for Terra to get worried, before Rose replied. "_No can do, boss_," she whispered. "_It's like a Mafia convention in here! I was about to call for backup myself!_"

Terra considered this before speaking. "I'll tell Superboy to join you as soon as he's finished at the train crash," she responded. She relayed these orders to Superboy. Another check showed that Robin's group were busy but were generally keeping the gang rumble under control. Nonetheless, they wouldn't be able to respond soon enough. This meant that there wasn't any reserves left to…

Terra slapped her forehead. _What is wrong with me?_ she asked herself. She touched an intercom switch.

"_Yeah…?_" mumbled her husband's sleepy voice.

"Rise and shine, Stud," she declared. "We've got problems and we're the only ones left to do something about it!"

* * *

Nightwing looked around and realised with some amazement that it had been nearly a _decade_ since this group had all been together. The last time that this generation of Titans had worked together was four years ago, when they had banded together at Joe's insistence to determine the origins of a young assassin known as Ravager, who used many of the methods and styles of the supposedly-dead Slade. Of course, at that time, Kori was off-world, Babs was still confined to a wheelchair and Karen was pregnant and unable to assist.

"It's quite a group," Terra was informing her team-mates, pointing at a black-and-white CCTV image on the main briefing monitor. "Mammoth and Killer Moth are obvious and easy to identify, especially after Moth got mutated into that huge bug thing by the Penguin a few years back. Given the Union Jack uniforms that the grunts are wearing, they must be associated with Mad Mod somehow. This one though," she pointed to a petite figure in a cat-themed costume, "is unidentified at this time. According to the computers, she's the wrong body shape and height for the original Catwoman or that actress that the _Gotham Post_ had impersonating her. I'm guessing that this must be a copycat like that one a few years ago in Gotham that turned out to be Talia al-Ghul."

Nightwing nodded. "Changeling, Amazon," he said. "You're our big hitters. I want you to go for Mammoth initially; ignore the others and focus on brining him down. Starfire, I want you to take on Killer Moth; remember he can spit acid now so keep your eyes _open_ for ranged attacks. Terra, I want you to block the roads and herd the grunts back towards the bank building. Then you join with me, Raven and Cyborg in bringing them down. Be careful with them, people. They might not be metas, but those grunts could easily be the most dangerous of the bunch. Those weapons look military-grade. Phoenix, I want you to find Mad Mod. It isn't in his nature not to be watching from a safe distance, rubbing his hands."

The Dark Knight of Blüdhaven looked around at his friends. "Bumblebee, are you going to be okay here by yourself?"

The dark-skinned woman smiled. "I'm too out of practice, Nightwing," she replied with a rueful smile. "I'd be a liability in the field. I'll keep monitoring the situation and feed the kids into the fight as and when they're available and needed."

Terra looked around at the dark-skinned Titan. "The meeting of crime lords and the gang rumble are a priority for the kids, 'Bee. We can handle this lot." Bumblebee nodded in agreement.

* * *

Much to Nightwing's surprise, they succeeded in gaining total tactical surprise on the garishly-dressed bank robbers, who were currently attempting to transport several _tons_ of gold bullion towards the waterfront. Amazon came in high and Changeling, in the form of a charging Asiatic Rhino, came in low a half-second later. Between them, they sent Mammoth crashing back through the plate glass front of a department store.

With a roar of rage, Killer Moth rose to his full, horrifically mutated height, spread his wings and was about to launch himself into the air when a star-bolt caught him in between the eyes and sent him crashing to the blacktop. Nightwing heard Raven casting a spell. With a cry of "_Azareth, Metrion, ZINTHOS!_", all the grunts' weapons were lifted up high up into the air, surrounded by black fire.

At that point, the roads seemed to twist and buckle, huge barricades of stone thrusting up from underneath the blacktop. Moments later, the top of the barricades suddenly turned to a fusillade of rocks flying at the grunts and driving them backwards, abandoning the trucks carrying the gold. At that point, Nightwing, Terra, Cyborg and Raven all tore into them, Nightwing little more than a dark blur leaping from foe to foe, Cyborg using his mechanical strength to toss them around like dolls and Terra and Raven using their powers to send others flying.

Mammoth had finally extracted himself from the store-front and was now going one-on-one with Changeling, who had morphed into a giant green gorilla (it amazed Nightwing that his friend had actually succeeded in changing into _Mighty Joe Young_!). Meanwhile, above, Starfire and Amazon were dog-fighting with Killer Moth. Well, Starfire was. Amazon was hanging onto his back, finding new and interesting places where she could use her super strength on him. Nightwing figured it would be no more than a minute before Wonder Woman's younger sister tried pulling his wings off. Starfire was keeping out of the line of fire of Moth's acid spit but smouldering wounds on the sides of buildings suggested that this was going to be another large-scale property damage incident.

With the grunts more-or-less contained, Terra turned her attention to Mammoth. With a gesture, several pillars of stone ripped out of the ground and shaped themselves around the gigantic metahuman strongman. This temporarily trapped his limbs for just long enough for Changeling to deliver a massive two-handed hammer blow. Astonishingly, Mammoth got up again, wavering but seemingly still ready for a fight.

The last of the garishly-dressed grunts were down. Raven looked up and then towards Mammoth. "I've had enough of this," she growled. She raised her hands and black fire crackled around them. Suddenly, Mammoth was lifted up from in between Changeling and Terra and flung towards Killer Moth who was flung back towards him in turn. The two big mutant power-houses struck head-on with a massive concussion that probably shattered a few windows. They then fell bonelessly to the street, tangled together and seemingly unconscious.

Nightwing shot Raven a look. "Why didn't you do that first?" he wanted to know.

The black-and-blue-clad vigilante swore he could see laughter in the sorceress's violet eyes. "Really, Nightwing, you have to learn to do some things for yourself."

"_Okay, blokes and birds, everyone freeze!_" There was only one person in Jump City who talked like that. Heck, Nightwing found that he hadn't even met more than a handful of _Brits_ who talked like Mad Mod! He dropped the semi-conscious Grunt upon whom he'd been working out his frustrations and turned to watch the criminal, wearing his usual white suit with Union Jack waistcoat, walk out from a side alley. The man had his hands (no doubt including his cane with its hypnotic light-show) behind his back. That alone made him nervous. That immediately meant that he had some kind of trick up his sleeve.

"You're in a pretty weak position to start negotiating _now_, Mod," Nightwing growled in his best 'Batman' voice, pointing at the theme criminal. "You seem to be out of…"

There was a sudden crack that Nightwing immediately recognised as a grappler gun firing. So, he wasn't as surprised as he could be as a grappling line wrapped around the arm whose hand he was pointing at Mad Mod. "Oh, come on Lover," a strangely familiar voice taunted. "You don't need to play with the silly Brit! Come and run away with me!"

Nightwing turned in the direction of the voice and his jaw dropped open in horror. In his life, he had seen many terrible and mind-destroying things. However, few if any of them could have prepared him for this sight.

Selina Kyle would have probably shredded the woman who stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the avenue on _sight_. At least, she would have after she stopped vomiting. Nightwing had never realised that leather could come in _hot pink_, nor that it was possible to have one's cleavage exposed from throat to navel like that without _falling out_ of one's costume. (Briefly, Dick remembered his Mk1 Nightwing costume with the 'medallion man' wing collar and exposed chest and shuddered, thanking heaven that Kori, Babs, Karen, Donna, Tara and Rae had all banded together to steal and destroy it the very first night.) Nightwing's eyes narrowed behind his mask. The advancing female costumed villain might not have been identifiable on those grainy CCTV images. However, in full colour, with that long blonde hair running from behind the hot pink mask with furry pink cat's ears and the arrogant and pseudo-seductive smile, she was instantly recognisable. "Kitten? What is this?"

Kitten's smile faded when Nightwing's first reaction wasn't an expression of love or, indeed any indication that he regarded her as anything other than an irritant and potential threat. "I'm here for you, Lover!" she snapped. "You've been playing hard-to-get for too long and now I'm going to get what's mine!"

Mod's smile faded too. "Hey! First thing's first, bint!" he snapped. "First you and your dear freaky daddy help me get rich, _then_ I reprogram tall, dark and poncey to be your boyfriend!"

Kitten stamped her improbably-high high-heel-clad foot in a display of temper that confirmed that her emotional development had stopped somewhere around her eighth birthday. "You watch your language, you jerk!" she shot back. She looked at Nightwing. "Lover, are you going to let that mean Brit talk to me like that?"

"Actually, I was planning on taking him to jail," Nightwing remarked levelly. Kitten beamed in pleasure. "You too." Her smile faded and she actually looked close to _tears_!

"Why won't you admit that you love me?" she whined. "I did all this for you!"

"Actually," Raven responded dryly, "you did it mostly to cater to your own ludicrously-inflated self-image. Unfortunately, Nightwing is clearly not as impressed with you… as _you _are."

"You _bitch_! I'll scratch your face off!" Kitten dropped the grappling gun and tried to charge Raven, only to be picked up telekinetically and slammed back against a light pole with barely a twitch of the sorceress's finger. "Owie! That wasn't _fair_ you _slut_!"

"She's falling out of that stripper's dress and she calls _me_ a slut?" Raven muttered.

"_OI_!" Mad Mod's furious shout attracted everyone's attention before the fighting could start again. "_If_ I can have everyone's attention, please!" The British theme criminal ran a shaking hand through his dyed blond hair before continuing. "_As _I was saying, this fight is hereby over, cause _I've_ got the trump card. Why don't you come out, luv?" Mad Mod moved his cane out from behind his back and Nightwing noted that it was indeed active. Much to his surprise and horror, Phoenix walked out, her gaze locked on the sparkling hypnotic gem. "Silly cow thought she was being subtle but no bird can outwit Mad Mod!" The man laughed maniacally. "So, you are all going to surrender like nice little heroes?"

"Or…?" Nightwing asked. There was always an 'or'. Besides, he needed to buy time.

"Or I have your little friend here beat the snot out of you all! You wouldn't dare hurt her!"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "I say that you are bluffing Mad Mod. Your powers are not that effective." Nightwing shot the pale-skinned sorceress a shocked look. However, he knew her well enough to trust her and let her run with her plan.

"Really?" Mad Mod leered. "Is that the case dear?" he asked Phoenix, who stepped in front of him an took up a fighting posture, drawing out one of the boomerang weapons she had adapted from her old Batgirl equipment. "Apparently not!" Mad Mod looked over at Raven. "Okay, luv, go and break that black-cloaked slag's arms!"

Nightwing tensed, rapidly running through the ways he knew to immobilise Phoenix without hurting her when Kitten, who had recovered from her earlier dismissal, fired another grappling line, this one wrapping around his upper body and tying his arms to his side. As this was happening, Phoenix tensed as if about to leap forwards… Then she swivelled on the spot, catching Mad Mod with a spin-kick to the temple. The British theme criminal went tumbling headlong and his cane clattered to the ground. Less than a second later, Phoenix's wing-boomerang struck the gem, its super-hardened titanium-cored point shattering the quartz into a thousand shards.

"But… but… how?" Mod blurted. "I had full control over you!"

Phoenix sighed and posed impatiently, hands on hips. "Mod, you idiot, we first faced you fifteen years ago! Didn't it occur to you that we'd be ready for your tricks?" The Brit gazed at the redheaded vigilante stupidly. Phoenix tapped the side of her mask. "Don't you think we would have thought to have filters in our masks to block your hypnotic light-show?" She glared over at Raven. "You had to nearly ruin the surprise, didn't you?" The telepathic sorceress shrugged with a slightly mischievous smile.

Mad Mod began to blubber. "That… that… that _ain't fair_!"

"I don't care about him!" Kitten screeched. "I want my hunky Wing!" She yanked hard on the line around Nightwing, making it tighten painfully and making Nightwing grimace in pain. "DADDY!" With a roar, the _thing_ that had once been Killer Moth rose into the sky on giant wings beating with the noise of a huge helicopter's rotors. "Daddy! Keep them busy so I can get away with your new son-in-law!"

Killer Moth spat a stream of acidic saliva at the Titans, making them scatter. Mammoth took the opportunity to shove Changeling away from him and send Cyborg flying with a tremendous backhanded blow.

Raven raised her hands into the air and her Soul Self, a 100-foot-span raven made entirely of black fire, materialised around her and rose up into the sky. Moth spat another stream of saliva at the massive energy construct. The corrosive fluid shot into the construct… and didn't come out, teleported to somewhere. So distracted was the airborne villain by the blazing black corvine that he didn't even notice Starfire until a maximum-power star-bolt hit him in the centre of the chest. A few moments later, Amazon swept in and delivered a hay-maker that sent the bug-like giant metahuman crashing back against the side of a building. Finally, her eyes glowing gold, Terra raised her arms, geokinetically elevating a 100-square-foot bit of black-top and rocky substrata that slammed into Moth, flattening him against the side of the tall building. With a show of care and precision, Terra put the lump of road surface right back where she found it. Killer Moth, unconscious, dropped bonelessly to the ground with bits of building façade and glass clattering down around him.

Meanwhile, Nightwing had simply used the leverage that Kitten herself had provided him. He grabbed the grappler cable, twisted his upper body and yanked the blonde-haired wannabe theme criminal towards him. The young woman's mouth was open in a gasp and her jaw made a perfect target for a kick that sent her spinning away, blood spurting from the corner of her mouth. With the cable loosened, Nightwing was easily able to shrug it off.

A wing-boomerang hit the grappler gun and shattered it. "I've got this little bitch!" Phoenix called out, somersaulting through the air to land in front of the staggering pink-clad spoilt woman-child. "Y'know, this has been coming a long time, air-head," Phoenix said darkly. "This is the moment when I teach you to _keep your hands off my man_!"

"Yours?" Kitten blurted. "I thought…?" she had half-turned to gesture at Starfire, who was helping Amazon and Cyborg bend some steel girders around Killer Moth. This distraction was a bad idea because it opened up her jaw to a right cross from Phoenix. "You… _bitch_!" Kitten spat. "I'll cut off your face!" The young woman reached behind her and pulled out two Japanese tri-bladed fighting knives.

Phoenix grinned unpleasantly. "Let's dance, air-head!" In a moment, she turned into a dark blur, jumping and somersaulting around Kitten, delivering blow after blow as the untrained wannabe-villain slashed randomly and uselessly at the air with her knives.

Mammoth, who had decided that this had long since gone beyond the worth of the share of the loot that Mad Mod was offering him, was running for cover. Nightwing, using whatever tool was to hand as Batman had long ago taught him, used Kitten's dropped grappling line, swinging it at Mammoth's legs and tangling them up. He then leapt into the air, bouncing off several buildings as he went in pursuit of Mad Mod, who was running in the opposite direction to the hulking HIVE graduate.

As he did so, Changeling, in the form of a green pigeon dropped down in front of Mammoth and transformed to a polar bear. To his credit, the giant HIVE graduate did not hesitate for a moment but aimed a crushing punch at the gigantic bear as it reared up in front of him. His punch… connected with thin air and he staggered forwards, totally off-balance as Changeling transformed into a jerboa and agilely raced in between his foe's legs. Then he switched back to human form. "Look out! Behind you!" he taunted before transforming back into a pigeon. Mammoth whirled and slammed both of his fists down in an overhead blow, striking nothing. Changeling switched back to human form after dropping down behind Mammoth again. "Come on, man! Keep with the program here! I can't do this any slower!"

With a roar of bestial fury Mammoth drove both his fists against the blacktop again, sending the green-skinned zoomorph flying through the air with a cry of surprise. Mid-air, Changeling transformed into a red kangaroo and bounced back towards his foe. Mammoth had no time to react as his opponent transformed into an anaconda. The giant constrictor dropped around Mammoth and coiled around his upper body before beginning to squeeze.

Knowing her husband's moves and guessing what he planned, Terra broke up the road surface, turning it into a trap for Mammoth's legs. Unable to run and try to dash the snake against the side of a building, Mammoth could only struggle hopelessly as the muscular coils contracted on every breath out, making it harder and harder for him to breath. Finally, verging on suffocation, the giant passed out and crashed unmoving to the ground. Terra reshaped the blacktop into rocky body-cuffs as her husband returned to his human form. "Nice teamwork, beautiful," Changeling said with a grin.

"All part of the package," Terra responded, posing coyly.

Meanwhile, Mad Mod, his schemes in ruins, was running for his freedom. Suddenly, the air temperature dropped twenty degrees and Raven's Soul Self became visible in front of him. It opened its wings to reveal its mistress, her hood raised and her cloak drawn around her body, standing in the centre of the alley.

"You know…" Raven remarked. "I was hoping that, for once, a week of celebration for the Titans would go well and without some idiot trying to kill or enslave one or more of us. I'm afraid having my hopes dashed in this manner is somewhat… _irksome_." Mad Mod swallowed when he realised he could see _four_ slitted eyes glowing with an unearthly silvery-white light in the shadows of Raven's hood. Hopelessly, he pulled out a snub-nosed revolver and pointed it at the sorceress. "Please, do so," she said levelly. "I was hoping for the night to end on a humorous note."

The gun dropped from Mad Mod's suddenly-nerveless fingers. With a squeak, he turned… to run right into Nightwing's chest. The British theme criminal looked up into Nightwing's impassive face as the black-clad vigilante spoke in a voice dipped in liquid nitrogen. "You know, I don't usually let this stuff get too personal," he remarked. "But trying to mesmerise my wife like that? That just _annoys _me." There was a noise of liquid pouring onto the sidewalk, Mad Mod's eyes rolled up into his head and he fainted on the sidewalk in a pool of his own urine.

"NIGHTWING! LOOK OUT!" At hearing Cyborg's shout, Nightwing somersaulted into the air, clearing his previous location. Before he even landed, he was looking around him, but saw no immediate threat.

"What was it Cyborg?"

"I saw a sniper's laser spot on your back!"

Nightwing looked to the rooftops and activated his com-link. "Starfire, Amazon, check the rooftops, we might have a sniper."

* * *

If there _was_ a sniper (and Dick trusted Vic too much to even suspect that his friend had imagined the laser spot), they had hidden or run before Kori and Donna could find them.

Nightwing returned to the battle site to find that Tara had actually fixed most of the damage. The big question was… did they have enough 'cuffs for all the bad guys? He dropped the unconscious and wet-pants Mad Mod onto the pile of his goons (the 'Mod Squad' if he recalled correctly). Barbara dumped the battered and unconscious Kitten beside him. "Phoenix, next time, please don't play mind games. I thought… well, that doesn't matter. There was no need to grandstand like that."

Babs pouted. "You're no fun, Nightwing!" she protested. Her husband simply fixed her with a Bat-glare. "Oh, all right, I'll just knock 'em out next time!"

"Good. How did he get the drop on you anyway?"

"He didn't. I sneaked up on him whilst he was directing his troops. I knocked the gun and walkie-talkie out of his hand and then he brandished his stick-of-tricks at me. I decided to play along to see if he had any help other than those we'd already seen. He was more likely to reveal any hidden forces to me if he thought he had an advantage."

Dick shook his head and looked up as several police cars and vans drew up. "Better late than never," Vic muttered, earning him a glare from the Titans' leader.

"Sargent Mendez," Nightwing greeted a familiar face.

"Lieutenant now," the round-faced Latino cop remarked, tapping his bars. "Good to see you again, Nightwing. Good to see you _Titans_ again." The policeman looked around. "It's a good thing that your team was in town tonight. We've been stretched thin, between that gang fight, the train crash and the spate of petty and spontaneous crime. The weird thing is most of the people we've arrested tonight have no previous record or any idea why they did what they have done!"

Nightwing frowned thoughtfully. "Mad Mod was running this operation," he remarked. "It's possible that he used hypnosis to induce this behaviour. Look for any common experiences in the last few weeks such as receiving an anonymous gift that included an electronic light-show or buying an electrical appliance from a new store. You will also want to check for signs of sabotage or hypnosis involved in the train derailment."

Mendez nodded. "That'll probably be it, Nightwing." He looked down at the unconscious Brit. "Hopefully, this time the DA will prosecute rather than just deport. He hasn't committed any crimes in Britain so they can't hold him over there." The cop looked around him. Changeling was hugging Terra from behind. Starfire was sitting nonchalantly on top of the unconscious Killer Moth and Cyborg and Phoenix were checking the trucks that had been carrying the stolen gold for booby-traps and Amazon and Raven were overhead, double-checking for any sign of the possible sniper. "It's good to see you guys again. Those new kids working with Raven and Changeling are good but… well, somehow it isn't the same without you guys." The man grinned. "Just like old times, yeah?"

_To be continued…_


	5. A New Hope

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

* * *

**Disclaimer**

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Chapter 5 – A New Hope**

The original Titans streamed back into Titans Tower about five minutes later. Much to their surprise, the dining table in the common room was piled high with various types of pizza from the 'Multi-Meat Special' preferred by Vic and Donna, through Gar and Tara's 'Veggie Special' and Rae's preferred plain cheese. "To the victors, the spoils," Karen, still wearing her Bumblebee costume, remarked with a smirk.

"My darling Karen! You remembered!" Vic announced, grabbing his wife in his huge arms and lifting her up so her head practically touched the ceiling and twirling her around.

"Put me down you bionic goof!" she laughed.

Tara sighed. "What?" Gar asked.

"I'm gonna miss this feast," she said. "I've got to debrief the kids!"

Karen, who had escaped her husband by morphing into her tiny 'bee' form and flying away, had landed on the blonde geokinetic's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, honey, I've got it!" Tara looked at the three-inch-tall woman. "It can't be any harder than getting answers out of post-grad students in the labs!"

Tara shook her head. "Thanks but no; I've got this duty, I'll do it." The woman broke away from her husband. "Gar, save me a few slices." The green-skinned man nodded in agreement. "I _mean_ it Gar! Slices or the couch – Your choice!" She then strode off towards the Operations and Briefing Room, her hips and hair swaying, knowing and loving the fact that Gar's eyes would be glued to her ass every step of the way.

Vic noted his friend's obvious fascination with his wife's body in some amusement. "You're whipped, Green-genes."

"And loving it, Metal-man," Gar responded with a grin. "Don't tell me that you aren't too!"

Vic was about to reply when Karen returned to her human height at his shoulder. "Be careful of your next words, Victor," she warned darkly. With a grin, Vic made as if he were trying to fend off his wife's glare.

As the Titans sat, enjoying the 'victory feast' (Ah! Didn't that bring back good memories!), Dick noticed that Barbara wasn't eating as much as he'd expect. "Y'okay, Babs?"

"Fine, Dick," she replied. "I've had a bad stomach for a few days now. Probably getting ready for the wedding and all the trouble with Torque over the past month coming back to haunt me."

"You'll have a full check-out tomorrow," Dick decreed.

"Dick, I…"

"I mean it, Babs. There's no need to take risks. Don't think you have to play it tough with me!"

_

* * *

_

Stupid Short-pants!

Barbara thought to herself as she sat in the operator's chair in the Monitor Room. _All this because of a touch of mild stomach flu!_ Although she was certain that her ever-over-protective husband was worrying over nothing, she would let Vic check her over just to show him that he didn't need to worry. At least, that is what she _told_ herself. In truth, she was more than a little worried. She had too many bouts of lost appetite recently and she had completely missed her last period. That wasn't completely unusual. During previous crises, she had an irregular cycle too and Torque's violent attempt to patch together the remains of Blockbuster's empire in Blüdhaven certainly deserved being called a crisis. Nonetheless, something about this…

"I don't like you."

Barbara blinked as the completely unexpected statement derailed her train of thought and turned the seat around. Rachell'r was standing by the entrance to the Monitor Room and glaring at her. It would have been quite menacing if it were not for the fact that the Tamaranian/Human-hybrid girl was only four years old, clad in denim dungarees over a pink 'Hello Kitty' tee-shirt and was clutching a floppy cloth bunny. "I'm sorry, Rachell'r? What was that?"

"I. Don't. Like. You," the little girl repeated, trying to put menacing emphasis in to her words that her pretty voice simply wasn't able to convey.

Barbara thought through all the possible responses she could make to that statement. The obvious one – to laugh – would be completely counter-productive. Like it or not, Dick and Kori's daughter was about to become part of her family for an indeterminate amount of time and the worst possible beginning for that relationship would be for Rachell'r to believe that Barbara held her in contempt. "I'm sorry to hear that, Rachell'r," she finally responded. "Why don't you like me?"

The little girl glared at the redheaded vigilante as if she were stupid. "Because you're keeping Mama and Papa apart!"

_Ah! As I expected!_ Barbara made a point of taking off her mask. Being able to see the redheaded woman's eyes instead of the blank off-white lenses of her mask would make it easier for the girl to see her a person rather than an enemy. "Mamas and Papas should be together, shouldn't they?"

That completely wrong-footed Rachell'r had to think hard to come up with a response. "Well… yeah! Isn't that… what always happens?"

Barbara smiled grimly. "It ought to, but it doesn't. You love your Papa a lot, don't you? Even though you've only just met him?"

Once again, the little girl was wrong-footed. "Well… of course! He's so kind and strong and funny! He plays real nice and he listens to what I say!"

"I know, he's great!" Barbara said with a grin. "I love him too!"

"But… but…!" Rachell'r spluttered for a moment before she could formulate a reply. "But you _can't_!" Barbara raised an eyebrow. Despite being brought up in an alien society, human and Tamaranian body language was similar enough that the little girl recognised the unspoken question. "'Cause… 'cause Mama loves him and he's supposed to be with _her_! You _took him away from her_!"

"Oh, Rachell'r," Barbara said. "I wish the world was that simple. More than one person can love someone else, you know!" The girl stuck out her jaw pugnaciously. "Has your mom told you about me?" Rachell'r shook her head at once. Barbara was about to speak when the little girl looked down in shame. Barbara had pretty much paid her way through college by baby-sitting and she knew the cues. "Rachell'r?" she prompted gently, allowing a hint of warning into her tone.

"All right! She did, okay?"

Barbara nodded. "What did she say?" Now the little girl started to sniffle heart-brokenly and wiped at her eyes impatiently. "Rachell'r, please tell me."

"She… she said that you had loved Papa since he was a boy and… and… and you always wanted to be with him… and… and you loved him so much that… that you were willing to let him be with Mama if he wanted…!"

"That is what love is about, honey," Barbara said. "When you love someone, their happiness is so important that you'll let them be with someone else and be unhappy yourself!"

"But _why?_" The little girl nearly wailed this question. "Why does he stay with you instead of mama?"

"Rachell'r, I know that your mama loved your papa very much. The problem is that their lives took them in different directions, your mama back to Tamaran and your papa to his new home city here on Earth. Your mama knew that your papa's dreams could only be fulfilled here on Earth, so she let him stay when she had to leave. Although your papa wanted your mama to stay with him, he knew that she _had_ to go home. So, he let her go. And _that_ is love. Doing what is right for someone else. Sometimes… doing the right thing hurts." The little girl shook her head in instinctive denial. "Your mama was right that I've loved your papa a very long time. When met me again, after your mama left Earth, I'd been very badly hurt. So badly hurt that I never thought that I'd be well again. He…" Barbara's eyes became misty. "He made me feel whole, even though I wasn't. He convinced me that I was still able to live and was still a woman despite all the things that had been taken away from me. I was afraid that I couldn't ever be a good wife to him. He didn't care. He loved me _so_ much… that he was willing to stay with me, even… even though I didn't… didn't really believe that I had anything to… to offer him."

Barbara had to stop at that point to clear the tears from her own eyes. She couldn't help but remember the day Dick proposed. "_Barbara, it is _you_ that I love. So what if your legs don't work? I love the woman, not the ability to walk! In my eyes… you're _perfect_!_"

"Why didn't you feel… whole? What was wrong with you?" Barbara blinked as Rachel's innocent question brought her back to the here-and-now.

Barbara sighed. It made sense that Kori wouldn't have told this story to her very young daughter. "You know why your Uncle Vic looks the way he does?" Rachell'r nodded. "Well, I have things like his robot half in my own body, in my back. An evil man had attacked me and badly injured me. After that, I couldn't walk." The little girl gasped. "Your papa didn't see the injuries and he didn't see the wheeled chair that I needed to get around. He just saw the woman that he loved." Barbara sucked in a deep breath. "It confirmed to me something that I always knew. That he was the one person above all others that I loved and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life showing him that I loved him and repaying the love he showed me."

Rachell'r pondered this. "But…" the little girl looked up and the tears in her green eyes threatened to break Barbara's heart. "Why won't you let him be with Mama and me… if you love him?"

Barbara sighed. "Rachell'r… One thing that your mama and I have in common is that we want what your _papa _wants, not what _we _want. What does your mama say?" The little girl's jaw jutted out obstinately again and Barbara immediately knew what was going on. Kori had already told her daughter something the little girl didn't want to hear and now Rachell'r, in the time-honoured tradition of children of separated parents everywhere, was trying to fix things. "Come on, help me out here! I'm not a telepath!"

The girl sighed. "She says that her time with papa is over. She says that she's moved on and that she is glad he is married to you! How can you love someone and not want to be with them?"

"Well, like I said, love can be weird like that sometimes."

"Oh."

"That's why I'm not going to stop you staying with your papa at our home!" Rachell'r gave Barbara a weird look and the woman continued. "Rachell'r, I know that your papa loves you very much and that he wants you to stay with him. There's also another reason why though." The little girl frowned slightly in incomprehension. "I'm doing this because _he's your papa_. I love him so much that I love every part of him, even if that part is in someone else. I want to learn to love you, Rachell'r because _you are his daughter_."

By this point, Rachell'r seemed totally confused. Barbara could empathise; After all, she was hardly playing the part of the Wicked Stepmother according to the fairy-tale stereotype. _That will happen the first time I have to discipline her_, she thought darkly.

"I love your papa very much, Rachell'r. I want him to be happy. Do you want him to be happy?" The little girl nodded. "Well then, let's make a deal. You and I will both do what he wants so that he will be happy. Do you think that you can do that?" Rachell'r nodded eagerly. "Do you think that you can do that _with me_?"

Rachell'r cocked her head. "I don't know," she admitted at last. "I want papa to be with mama so I can be with you both all the time. Mama says that can't happen and says he'd be happier with you…!" A long pause. "I guess… I guess you can stay if it makes Papa happy!"

_Thank you for that small mercy_, Barbara thought cynically. Something told me that this was one precocious kid and that living with her would be… _interesting _to say the least. "Deal," she said aloud.

Barbara stuck out a hand. Rachell'r looked at it. "What's that for?"

"When humans want to seal a deal, they shake hands!" Rachell'r shot her stepmother an odd look. "I'll show you how. Grasp my hand, fingers curled around the bottom. That's good, not too tight. Now. Slowly up and down with your arm. That's good. That means that the deal is sealed!"

Completely unexpectedly, Rachell'r pulled closer and dropped a child's gentle kiss onto Barbara's cheek. "You're nice, really!" the girl revealed. "I might like you after all! I'll have to think about it!"

* * *

"So, Vic, do I have to cut out wine, women and song?"

Victor smiled at Barbara as he considered the data on the medical computer's display screen. Almost automatically, he responded as he used to when they were Batgirl and Cyborg. "Only two out of three, Red. You can sing your fool head off!" He frowned and called up Barbara's detailed medical records from the Oracle network.

"Seriously, Vic, you're worrying me here. I thought it was just stomach flu!"

Victor shook his head. "Your miscarriage was eighteen months ago," he said. Behind him Barbara winced in remembered agony and nodded sharply. "Barbara, how many periods have you missed?"

"One." There was a pause as Barbara thought. "Technically, this one is a day late but I've never been _that_ regular."

Vic nodded. He turned to the intercom. "Cyborg to Nightwing. Nightwing, report to medical bay."

"Vic, what is it?" Barbara's eyes widened as she finally put the pieces together. "Vic! Am I…?" Her voice rose in a paradoxical mix of hope and fear.

Victor somehow kept his cool. "Leave it for when Dick gets here, Red."

Nightwing arrived less than two minutes later. "Babs!" he said, breathing hard from his long sprint from the gym where he had been watching the younger Titans practice. "Vic, what's going on? Toxin? Maybe some side-effects from Mod's attempt to hypnotise…?"

Barbara's hand closed around her husband's like a vice. "Let him talk, my love."

"I've triple checked," Vic said. "Hormone tests, blood work and ultrasound scan all confirm. Barbara is about six to eight weeks pregnant."

"I… You…" Dick was flabbergasted. "Pregnant?"

"You've heard of that, I suppose?" Barbara was somehow holding in her emotions but was still able to look up coyly at her husband from behind her eyelashes. She didn't know whether to scream, start laughing or burst into tears. "I understand that is where babies come from."

"I…" Dick shook his head. "Damn it, woman! _What were you thinking_?" Barbara blinked. "You know stress can induce problems in pregnancy! What made you think it was safe for you to go out with the team on that operation last night?"

"Now hold your horses, Dick…"

Dick gestured for Vic to be silent. "Barbara, that was _stupid_ of you! I expect you to think _more clearly_ in a potential threat situation! Even if you weren't hurt, the risk from the elevated fight/flight hormone levels…"

"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID?" Barbara screamed. "Dick, you know how much loosing little Bruce tore me apart! _Do you think I'd take a risk with another baby_?" Dick was struck silent, suddenly all-to-aware of the infamous redheaded temper and the fury in his wife's green eyes. Barbara took in a deep breath. "Besides, I only found out today."

"Only…?" Vic couldn't help snicker at the stupid expression on Dick's face. "Jeez… I'm sorry, Babs!"

"You're forgiven, love," Barbara said quietly. She looked down at her costume. "I suppose I'm not going to be wearing this for a while until little whoever it is arrives."

"Actually…" Vic said. Dick and Barbara looked up at him. "It is 'whoever _and _whoever'. The ultrasound showed two zygotes."

"Fraternal twins?" Dick and Barbara actually spoke in unison.

"Yup. Too early to tell the genders but 3D virtual imaging confirms there are definitely two." He stood back as the two lovers hugged each other, finally letting their mutual tears fall. "Congratulations. You guys deserve it."

_To be continued…_


	6. Bonding

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

* * *

**Disclaimer**

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Bonding**

"So there _was_ a sniper?" Dick was, despite his best morning suit, very much in 'Nightwing' mode as he listened to Gar relay the report from the JCPD.

"We can't be sure about that part, but there _was_ someone on that roof at the time you and Rae were facing Mad Mod," Gar responded. "The cops found fresh blood and signs of a struggle."

"But there is no indication of _who_. None of the younger Titans were in the area?" Gar shook his head. "So, there was someone, we don't know who, on the roof who was aiming _something_ at my back. Someone, we don't know who, took them down. Does that cover it?"

"There was also indication of activity on other roofs around the junction when we hit Mod's gang," Gar said. "Several large and identical _somethings_ had all been placed on those roofs and removed all within 24 hours before the time the roofs were checked."

Dick nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Increase the size of every patrol to three persons including one flyer," he said. "No one takes _any_ risks. If they see something, they pull back and pursue _subtly_ until the entire team is on site to engage the suspect. Make sure Connor and Kara are _completely_ clear that they are included in this order. Remind them that there is more than one kryptonite bullet out there."

Gar grinned. Even though the original Titans were technically disbanded and Gar and Raven were responsible for the new kids, Dick still acted like the team leader given half a chance. "S'already in work, oh fearless leader," he responded. "Dick, whoever it was seems to have had their asses handed to them that night. Ease down and enjoy the day!"

Dick sighed and smiled at his friend. "I've been treading on your toes with your team, haven't I?" He shook his head. "It's finally happened. I've become Batman. I'm a control freak who's constantly taking charge of other people's teams, treating my partner like an idiot and is obsessed with My City. Grunt."

Gar somehow managed not to laugh at Dick's mortified expression as well as his imitation of Batman's trademark response to any fact that displeased him. "Just showing you care, man. I'd take a good suggestion from you any day."

Dick nodded in thanks. "Thanks, brother but I know when not to push my luck."

"Daddy!" Terri ran over in a beautiful pink dress that somehow perfectly matched her green complexion and her green-blonde hair. "Daddy! Look at my dress! Don't I look pretty?" The girl twirled around, arms out to her side.

"You do, Princess!" Gar responded with a smile. He picked up his four-year-old daughter and lifted her up.

Dick smiled and wondered if Rachell'r and he would ever have that sort of effortless mutual joy. He also wondered if he would have that sort of relationship with Barbara's children. In the two weeks since Vic had confirmed Barbara pregnancy, Dick had _tried_ not to be an over-protective and smothering husband, he truly had. However, the memories of the day Babs miscarried and the dark weeks that followed haunted him still. Vic had been very strict. He approved of a continuing level of exercise and warned Dick that the biochemical changes from too quick a switch to rest or the stress of dealing with his over-protectiveness was just as risky for her ability to carry to term.

Fortunately, Rachel had been available as a distraction. It seems that the girl was old enough to be fascinated at the prospect of actually seeing human gestation in action. She had been full of questions and had, with a completely straight face, informed Dick that she was willing to consider sharing him with Barbara's 'offspring'. The presence of Kori, very obviously trying not to laugh herself into a rupture, during these discussions in no way helped Dick's peace of mind.

Oh, and it _was_ 'Rachel'. Barbara had asked the little girl which name she wanted them to use. With a bit too much maturity for someone of her age, she had announced that, as she was going to be living on Earth 'for a while', she needed to get used to using the human form of her name.

So, Barbara was keeping up her training regime at its lowest level and had a fascinated and determined Rachel, chivvied into it by her mother, attempting to follow along with her. She had also endured Rae's Hen Night with clucking female Titans (including the older new generation of Titans) and female relatives from both sides all over her. One would have thought that Rae would have been annoyed at Barbara stealing so much of the attention but, frankly, Barbara got the impression that the pale-skinned woman was more than pleased to have someone take the spotlight off of her.

Wally, Roy, Jenny and Toni had been the last of the first generation of Titans to arrive in Jump City, Wally, Roy and Toni from an off-world mission with the JLA and Jenny from her studio in Los Angeles where she was building a reputation as a dress designer. They had all arrived in time for the Hen and Stag parties. Keeping Wally and Roy under control in the context of a party and lots of alcohol had been… _interesting_. Probably it was only fear of the female Titans that kept them out of jail that night. Oddly enough, that didn't stop the ladies from ending up being the loudest party that the Tower had ever known.

"So, ready for flower-girl duties?" Dick asked Terri after her father had set her down.

Terri nodded fast and excited.

"When do I get to be a flower girl?" Rachel asked. Dick looked over at his daughter. She didn't seem… _jealous_… as much as _confused_. Maybe she wanted to be the centre of attention the way that Terri seemed to be. Maybe it was just a desire to fit in with the newly-introduced culture of her father's species.

"Maybe at the next wedding, if you are a good girl," Barbara suggested.

Rachel frowned. "Whose will that be?"

Somehow, Gar managed not to laugh. Kori started to look worried.

"I don't know," Barbara admitted. She looked over her shoulder and a malicious smile appeared on her lips. "Maybe Tim and Cassie?"

Rachel looked over at Tim and Cassie, the latter looking surprisingly at ease in a dress (who knows how many shivs, coshes and other instruments of violence she had concealed in it?). "Really?" She had come to like her Papa's brother-by-choice and admired the warrior spirit of his consort. "When?"

"Now how am I supposed to know?" Barbara said. "Why don't you ask them?"

"Good idea!" Rachel skipped off towards the current Robin and Batgirl.

As soon as she was out of ear shot, Gar let out an explosive snort of laughter.

"That," Kori told Barbara, "is as close to pure, unadulterated evil as it is possible for a non-demon to get! How I wish that _I_ had thought of something like that!"

"_SHE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT?_" Tim's voice echoed over the buzz of conversation in the common room as the bridal party prepared to depart.

"You'll pay for that," Dick informed his wife.

"I wager ten dollars that Cassandra would like to know the date too, purely for planning purposes," Kori said with a completely straight face.

"Are Uncle Tim and Auntie Cassie-B really gonna get married?" Terri asked her father.

"We don't know that for sure, so don't say anything," Gar responded seriously. "Now, you go and sit with your Auntie Karen and _don't _get your dress dirty!" With a morose nod, the girl walked off, passing Rachel as she returned.

"Uncle Tim says that he hates you all with malice and afterthought," Rachel reported. "Auntie Cassie said that she needed time to 'pin him down'. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Suddenly, the doors to the female quarters opened and a hush fell over the room. Jenny walked in. The former Jinx cleared her throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages! I present to you… the _blushing bride_!"

Rae _did_ have a blush on her face and she directed a subtle kick at her friend's shins as she walked past. The dress was not white. Jenny had correctly predicted that pure white would not match well with Rae's pale Azarethii skin. Instead, the dress was a lavender shade, not dissimilar to the inner lining of the cloak of her fighting costume. Her shoulders were bare and the corset proved what had always been suspected but the male Titans could never prove: She _did_ have a bust. Her skirts were long as tradition demanded, layered in different shades of lavender from pale on the outer layer to nearly violet on the inner layer. Behind her, in matching purple dresses, were Donna, who would be acting as Rae's Matron of Honour, and Rae's two bridesmaids, Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl ('Cassie-W' as the children called her) and Anita Fine, Empress, Rae's apprentice in the Arts.

Dick, aware of his role, stepped forwards. "Rae, you look beautiful," he said, taking the hand not holding her bouquet. "Tony is a very, very lucky man."

Rae's blush grew worse and she clearly had to fight to regain control before she could speak. "Thank you, Richard. And thank you for doing this for me. I cannot repay…"

"Rae, seriously, you and I have been through more together than most _blood_ families. Giving you away at your wedding is more than my pleasure."

* * *

Rae was, of course, the ultimate orphan. Her homeworld, indeed her entire home _dimension_, had been reduced to a lifeless wasteland by Trigon. Although she had her own faith, she was therefore its last living practitioner and no one else remained who knew enough of its ceremonies and traditions to perform a wedding according to the ways of Azerath. Tony had, with some embarrassment, admitted to being 'not much of anything, really'. The decision had finally been made to hold the ceremony at Jump City's multi-denomination chapel, as Rae did not feel the stark secularism of being married by a Justice of the Peace fitted in with her view of the importance of the moment.

Barbara, Kori and Rachel were all sitting towards the front of the pews on the bridal side. Gar was sitting right at the front. Tony, and his old school friend Brett (who was his Best Man) were standing by the altar. Tony looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to run or just puke. At that moment, Wagner's _Bridal Chorus_ from _Lohengrin_ began. Rae, her veil covering her face, walked down on Dick's arm, Donna, Cassie and Anita helping to carry her train. Ahead, a very pleased Terri scattered petals of every possible colour (and one or two impossible ones, in Barbara's estimation) across the aisle.

The pastor, a pleasant middle-aged man with a sharp beard who accepted Rae's extra-dimensional status and… _unique_ personal history and status without so much as a blink, stepped forwards. "Who gives this woman in marriage?"

"I do," Dick said firmly. "On behalf of all of those who are as much kin to her as any of blood and on behalf of a mother and a mentor, both sadly missed, who both loved her more than any other thing." Raven smiled sadly and silently whispered a prayer of thanks to Arella and Azar. Dick placed a formal kiss on the pale-skinned woman's forehead and lowered her veil in place.

Dick formally put Raven's free hand into Tony's and looked at him. "Don't forget," he whispered. "Shovel, hole, deep." Tony paled and Rae lightly kicked Dick in the shin as he stepped back.

…

"What is Papa doing?" Rachel whispered to her mother.

"It is a tradition in human bonding ceremonies for the leader of the woman's family or clan to formally pass the woman over to the man," Kori responded. "Your papa is doing that for your Auntie Rae."

"Oh." Rachel said. "But Papa isn't Auntie Rae's papa?"

Kori smiled. "No, Little Sunrise."

"Well, shouldn't her Papa do it instead of mine?" Kori felt her heart clench.

"He can't Rachel," Barbara whispered.

"Why not?" The girl's voice was querulous and starting to rise in volume.

"Because he is no more," Kori responded firmly. "Enough questions on this matter, child. We will explain to you another time." Rachel opened her mouth, but one look from her mother made her snap her mouth closed and slouch in her seat.

…

Tony lifted Rae's veil and his heart lurched in his chest. Irreverently, a part of him was thankful that he decided to wear contacts today instead of his spectacles, as they would certainly have steamed up. _Oh my sweet God, she's _beautiful_! This angel wants to marry _me_?_

Rae knew a moment of nervousness and dread the like of which she had never felt before. Then Tony smiled, she smiled in turn and suddenly she _knew_ that this would all work out.

…

"_Marriage is more than just a romantic bond. It is more than just a partnership. It is putting aside your own dreams, desires and wishes and living for one another rather than for yourself. To stop being two individuals and becoming one flesh, one heart, one soul._"

Kori and Barbara's eyes met; an understanding was reached at that moment and would never be broken.

"_Love. The Good Book says that it never fails. Well, that's only true if you work at it. You have to continually renew your love, not just let it look after itself._"

Rachel frowned as she thought about the Priest's words. She looked up at her Papa and her Auntie Babs and wondered how _they_ did that.

"_True love looks beyond the physical, beyond the man and woman with all their imperfections to the heart and soul within._"

Karen looked over at Vic and squeezed his hand. By necessity, those were words upon which their lives together were built.

"_A relationship based on physical attraction is just lust. It can't last long. A marriage that works has first to be a friendship. Tony, Rae, you cannot just be lovers. You cannot just be partners. You must be the other's best friend. Each other's support, most trusted confidante and bulwark. And yes, each other's lover too; the only one for each other_."

Dick squeezed Babs's hand and she smiled at him, a smile that he returned without hesitation. Friendship had been the first thing between them and it had endured all these years through foolish, hormone-driven experimentation, separation, relationships with others and an endless struggle. In the end, they had always come back to each other, drawn seemingly without conscious thought like the opposing poles of a magnet.

Rachel looked at the way Papa and Auntie Babs seemed to be communicating without words and mentally contrasted that to the interaction between Mama and Papa. Perhaps now, on a certain level, she understood what had happened.

"_Tony, Rae, the best advice I can give you is this: Communication is _everything_. If you don't talk, you can't know. If you don't know you can't understand and without understanding… well, no love can last long in those circumstances._"

Dick looked over at Barbara and nodded to her, welcoming her smile. His greatest fault was to assume, to be the _detective_ instead of the _husband_. He felt himself unthinkably lucky that Barbara was willing to work through that.

…

"_Does any man or woman here today know of any lawful and legitimate reason why these two should not be wed? Let him speak now or forever hold his peace._"

No answer. Not exactly surprising, given that the Titans had been working for the previous two weeks to clear Jump City of anyone who could cause trouble.

…

"_I, Anthony Michael Jones, do take you Rachel Arella Roth, to be my lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold. To care for, love, honour, provide for and deeply cherish. And forsaking all others to keep myself for you and you alone. For richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health for as long as we both shall live._"

"_I, Rachel Arella Roth, do take you Anthony Michael Jones, to be my lawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold To care for, love, honour, provide for and obey. And forsaking all others to keep myself for you and you alone. For richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health for as long as we both shall live._"

The eyes of Gar met those of Tara. The eyes of Dick met those of Babs. The eyes of Vic met those of Karen. As Kori looked on, sniffling in joy, Tony and Rae looked into each other's eyes as they recited their vows, in their hearts alone together in this moment, unaware of their friends silently repeating their vows to each other.

…

"_Rachel. With this ring, I thee wed._"

"_Tony. With this ring, I thee wed._"

"_With the exchange of these rings and the vows uttered before these witnesses, I hereby declare you man and wife. What has thus been bound together, let no man ever dare break apart. You may kiss the bride_."

And kiss they did.

* * *

"Man, I never thought that I'd want to leave a party. I think that Gar needs to calm down before he goes into sugar deficit! Are you okay, Rae?"

Rae smiled at her… at her… _at her husband_ as the two stood in the gardens behind the reception hall. "I'm not exactly a person for crowds, but in this case the cause more than adequately justifies it."

Tony chuckled. "So… what's up?"

"You know that I am not of this world and that I am the very last living of my world." Tony nodded. "There is something that I have to say. I am the last, the very last, who can say it. If I do not bear you a daughter, I will be the very last to _ever_ say it. So I wish to say this now."

Raven closed her eyes and raised her hands, clearing her thoughts and letting Love out of her cage. Then she opened her eyes, looked at her mate again and began to recite the words she learnt, as tradition demanded, from her mother's lips. "Tony. From this day forth, no more am I Rachel. I am part of you as you are part of me. Together we are one, body, mind, heart and soul. Wherever you go, wherever I go, be we parted by seas, mountains, worlds or even the veil that parts life from death, I will be part of you as you are of me. In your heart, in your mind and in your soul and spirit. My partner in all things, my mate, my lord, my husband… My love. You. Tony. Forever." Rae pressed her hands together as if in prayer, then placed them both on her husband's chest over his heart, leaned forwards and kissed him.

* * *

"Tim?"

"Yeah, Cassie?"

"What purpose?"

"Of this? I'm not sure it has a 'purpose'. It's a tradition that has endured long after anyone really believes in its power any more. The tradition is that the woman who catches the bride's bouquet is the one who will be married next.

"Oh." Cassie shrugged. "Oh well."

Cassie reluctantly joined the crowd of young women and girls, both Titans and women known to Tony, both from his family and co-workers with he and Rae at the archaeological society. She kept to the back, having no intention to actually compete the for the bouquet.

Donna would later insist that what followed was divine intervention. The bouquet soared over the women in the front, bounced off of Cissy's outstretched hand. Kara fumbled the catch and the bouquet dropped onto Cassie's head. The Asiatic girl instinctively held out her hands as the falling object dropped into them.

The daughter of David Cain, one of the world's foremost assassins, glared at the offending bunch of flowers. "Oh," she said at last.

…

"Come on, man. No exceptions."

"Connor, get your hands _off_!"

"Sorry, Tim, but these orders come from Dick himself!" Ray grabbed his reluctant friend and team-mate by the collar and dragged him away from his hiding place.

Rae hauled up her skirt and smirked slightly at the way Tony was clearly stricken at the sight of her stocking-clad leg. After a flabbergasted moment, the man touched her garter. Rae succumbed to impulse and moved her leg up and down sensually. "It's all yours, you know. You can have the rest later tonight," she promised. Tony gulped.

The man finally got his bride's blue garter (a gift from Cissy's mother, the first Arrowette) off her leg. "Okay, guys, be careful with this!" he called before tossing it over his shoulder.

Tim later accused Connor of using his super-breath on it. Connor denied it and claimed that it was just a freak breeze. Whatever happened, the garter fell right onto a despondent Tim's shoulder.

Cassie considered the sight thoughtfully. Then she strode over, looking like a warrior about to face her ultimate foe, dragged Tim's head down to her level and kissed him with all the passion she could muster.

Babs was laughing heartily. "The curse of Robin and Batgirl strikes again!" she whispered to her husband.

Dick shook his head as he took in his brother-by-choice's bright red face and the way Cassie had linked arms with him in a _very_ possessive way, the Asiatic woman glaring around at every other female in a way that made him think of a lioness. "You know, I actually think he might be in trouble," Dick said thoughtfully.

_To be continued…_


	7. Epilogue

**Teen Titans – Futures**

By BenRG

* * *

**Disclaimer**

The Teen Titans were created for DC Comics by Marv Williams and George Pérez. The animated adaptation was created for Warner Brothers by Glen Murakami. They are the trademark property of DC Comics and its owners.

This is a not-for-profit fan-work for free distribution through the world-wide web. No claim of ownership is made by the author or distributors of this work.

**Author's Notes**

This story is not set in any strict version of the Titans canon. Elements of both the comics (in all its varying forms) and the animated series will appear here as well as aspects of my own, personal fanon universe. One major difference is the inclusion of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) as one of the Titans from the approximate time Terra first joined the team.

A warning in advance: The timeline of this story is shaky at best. The Titans universe has been reset at least once _and_ the comics and animated versions are almost completely incompatible. I've done my best, but it is difficult to square the circles, especially given the multiple deaths and resurrections of Slade and the constantly-revised ages of the characters.

About fifteen years after the formation of the Titans, a married Dick Grayson is returning to Jump City for the celebration of one of his former team-mates' marriage. When he does so, a mystery will be exposed and his relationship with his wife tested as never before as the future of the Titans begins to be revealed.

**Censor: T**

* * *

**Epilogue**

The car pulled away and headed for the airport, briefly surrounded by a shower of confetti. Old friends embraced and shook hands. Jokes were told and promises of contact were made. Slowly, one by one or in family groups, the original Titans began to go their separate ways again.

"Can we go _now_?"

Eighteen-year-old Nightfire looked over at thirteen-year-old Supergirl and rolled her eyes at the black-haired Kryptonian/human hybrid girl's peevish tone. "I don't know," she said. "It wasn't my idea to stay for X'hal's sake! Ask them!" Nightfire gestured at Redbird and Goldbird, who were on a rooftop closer to the events that they were observing.

Seventeen-year-old Gizmo shook his head in disbelief. "What the heck did they want to stay for? I mean, we caught those Jokerz cultists and stopped the assassination attempt! What's left to do except maybe contaminate the timeline?"

Nightfire sighed in a long-suffering way before replying to her boyfriend. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "Maybe it was because these events occurred _before they were born_? That maybe, just maybe, they wanted to see them with their own eyes?" _More likely_, she added darkly, _the two brats wanted to get blackmail material about me from when I _wasn't_ the all-knowing big sister!_

The team's leader, just-turned-nineteen-year-old Elementa sighed. "Look, I'm going to get them, okay? Every minute we stay here we take the risk of changing something. We're leaving and we're leaving right now."

"They'll throw a tantrum!" Supergirl predicted with a malicious laugh.

"They'd still be more mature than you," the green-skinned elemental morph spat in response. Then she morphed into a windstorm and flew over to the roof where the nearly-youngest members of the team were watching current events.

The dark-skinned master of technology nodded firmly in agreement with his team leader's assessment. "You really need to reign in the attitude, Lucy! Don't tell me that you wouldn't like to see some of your parents' lives from before you were born!"

"No civilian identities, Gizmo" Nightfire ordered firmly.

"For Gates' sake, Rach," he responded dismissively, "who'd hear us? We're already under a triple-level cloak and anti-surveillance interdiction shield!"

"It's the principle, Jerry. Like Grandpa says, our identity is our greatest vulnerability. We should practice until using our code-names is automatic, more so than our real names. That way, we don't make a mistake when we _aren't_ undetectable!"

Nightfire turned away from her boyfriend and looked back towards the dispersing group of Titans and family members. Despite her desire to keep her mind on business, she couldn't help but think back to this, one of the major turning points of her life. She looked and saw young Rachell'r of Tamaran… Rachel Anders… walking off with her father, mother and stepmother. She could still remember how excited she was to see Blüdhaven for the first time. Starfire wisely stayed a week to help her daughter acclimatise before returning to Tamaran… as she had always intended… _alone_.

"Kid, you might be excited now but you don't know how tough it's gonna get for you," she murmured. Oh there was homesickness, bedwetting, tantrums and even an attempt to run away (as futile as _that_ was). However, the strange thing was that, when she wanted comfort, she nonetheless went to her Dad and her Mom… Mama-B… Auntie Babs… She had been so kind, patient and loving. She had never been mean and had been so understanding, even when she had been a spiteful little bitch to her. It helped her to realise that she _did_ want to love her, not just for Dad's sake… but for her own too. Nightfire looked back with some guilt at how troublesome she had been for those first few months, especially with what she now knew about her stepmother's health and the risks she was taking attempting to bear children despite her abdominal injury. The stress of dealing with a bratty little girl could not have made it any easier on her.

She thought of Barbara Grayson, Phoenix, as her Mom now, having spent the last nearly fourteen years of her life on Earth, only seeing her birth mother on rare occasions. She still loved her Mama-K, but the fact was that Mama-B had seen her through so much stuff in her life; She'd grown up under her care whilst Mama-K was seen only for one or two weeks every year or two. Maybe one day, the political situation on Tamaran would settle enough that she could live there again. The strange thing that this possibility, a fondly-held dream for five-year-old Rachell'r, was oddly daunting and unwelcome to Nightfire now. _Earth_ was her homeworld now. Blüdhaven, Gotham and Jump City her home cities…

The real seal to the deal though, had been seven months from these current events. She had been woken at an absolutely illegally early hour of the morning by Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Selina (Don't call her that! At least not to her face!) and brought into the recovery room at the local hospital, where her Dad already waited. Dad had lifted her up and placed her on the bed with a tired-looking Mama-B. _Really_ tired. Not just "Rachel's been bullied at school again and isn't sleeping" tired. Worse than "I've just had to wait thirty hours for Batman to find Dick" tired, in fact. Paradoxically, she was also _happy._

"_M… Mama-B?_"

"_Hey, Rachel._"

"_Hold your arms out, Princess,_" Dad told her.

Two bundles. Babies. One swaddled in blue placed in her arms… "_That's James_." The other, swaddled in pink, being held by Dad. "_And this is Mary!_"

"_Daddy! Are they?_"

"_That's right_," Mama-B said. "_That's your baby brother and sister._"

_Her_ baby brother and sister. Kindred. _Family_. At that point, she was part of the Grayson family, body and soul. Frankly, she had never looked back. As cruel as it might sound, as the years had passed, her bonds to Earth, to Dad and Mom had grown stronger and her bonds to Mama and Tamaran just withered away. Somehow, Mama never quite seemed too concerned about the increasing distance between her and her daughter. To this day, Nightfire wondered if this had always been her plan. Koriand'r of Tamaran was a cunning strategist and warrior, after all.

Speaking of her twin burdens… "Hey, big Sis!" She really wished that Dad and Grandpa hadn't taught Jimmy and Mary how to do this family thing of appearing at your side with no warning.

"Seen enough, Redbird?"

"I guess…" the young male vigilante in the red-accented black costume looked over his shoulder before looking back at Nightfire. "So this is really the first time you'd been to Earth?"

"And you've been here ever since?" asked Goldbird, Redbird's twin sister with her yellow-accented costume a mirror of her brother's but her titian hair contrasting with his coal black locks.

Nightfire nodded at her thirteen year-old twin siblings and team-mates. "Yep! And in only about seven months time you two came into my life and I've never smiled since!"

"Aw… NF!" Redbird protested. Nightfire laughed and messed up his hair.

"Gizmo, have you contact with our time-zone yet?" Elementa asked.

"Hang on, boss-lady," Gizmo said. "We're just connecting now."

"_Hey guys, how's prehistoric times?_" That was unmistakably the voice of Barry West, Kid Flash, coming from the hidden speakers on Gizmo's tech-suit.

"Just open the time portal, Kid Flash," Elementa growled at the team's deputy leader.

"_You don't have to ask twice, boss-lady! The Jokerz are pretty active right now. We'll need you to go right to Central Square and help stop a riot!_"

"A riot? They're getting ambitious!"

"_Let's put it this way, Crusader and Alleycat are holding the fort as best as they can, Terri, but you, Rach and Lucy are our big hitters. We need you guys back ASAP. Portal opening now._"

A sparkling portal like a back-lit pool of water held up vertically irised into existence. "Everybody ready?" Elementa, asked. There were several nods. "Okay… TITANS GO!" One by one, they obeyed.

_James Grayson, Redbird;_

_Mary Grayson, Goldbird;_

_Lucy Kent, Supergirl;_

_Rachel Anders, Nightfire;_

_Terri Logan, Elementa;_

_Jerry Stone; Gizmo;_

As the last passed through, the time portal vanished as suddenly as a soap bubble popping. After it did so, there was no trace remaining of the next generation of the Teen Titans.

**The End**


End file.
